Create Skateboard App

Scaffolds a Skateboard app: React 19 + Vite 8 + Tailwind 4 on the frontend, and a zero-crate Rust backend with JWT cookies, CSRF, scrypt, SQLite, and Stripe.

What is Skateboard?

Skateboard is a production-ready SaaS boilerplate. New apps inherit UI through @stevederico/skateboard-ui and pull backend/glue updates with scripts/update-skateboard.js.

Quick Start

npx create-skateboard-app
cd my-app
npm install
npm start                 # frontend  http://localhost:5173
cd backend && cargo run   # backend   http://localhost:8000

Copy backend/.env.example to backend/.env and set JWT_SECRET, STRIPE_KEY, and STRIPE_ENDPOINT_SECRET.

Frontend is Vite. Backend is Rust (cargo run). There is no npm run server.

Usage

Interactive Mode

npx create-skateboard-app

With Project Name

npx create-skateboard-app my-app

Non-interactive

npx create-skateboard-app my-app -y
npx create-skateboard-app my-app --name "Acme" --color red --icon rocket -y

What You Get

• React 19, Vite 8, Tailwind CSS 4, TypeScript
• @stevederico/skateboard-ui 5.1.0 (exact pin)
• Thin Vite app (src/main.tsx, src/constants.json, src/legal.json) plus backend/
• Zero-crate Rust backend: JWT cookies, CSRF, scrypt, SQLite via system libsqlite3, Stripe via libcurl
• SQLite only
• Dark mode, mobile layout, protected routes
• Sign up / sign in, landing, settings, and legal pages (Privacy, Terms, EULA)

New apps inherit UI by bumping @stevederico/skateboard-ui. Backend and glue files update with:

node scripts/update-skateboard.js

Requirements

• Node.js 24+
• Rust (cargo run in backend/)
• System libsqlite3 and libcurl
• git or curl (the CLI downloads skateboard 5.6.0)

Configuration

After creating your app:

1. Copy the environment template:

   cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

2. Update backend/.env:

   • JWT_SECRET — token signing key
   • STRIPE_KEY — Stripe secret key
   • STRIPE_ENDPOINT_SECRET — webhook secret

3. SQLite path lives in backend/config.json (dbType is sqlite).

How the template is sourced

The CLI clones stevederico/skateboard at tag 5.6.0 (the current master release), then applies project-name and branding substitution. It does not vendor a second copy of the tree, so a pin bump is enough when skateboard ships a new release.

Overrides for development and tests:

• SKATEBOARD_REPO — git URL or local checkout
• SKATEBOARD_REF — tag or branch (default 5.6.0)

Contributing

npm test

The smoke test scaffolds from a local skateboard checkout and checks the 5.6 shape: UI pin, Rust Cargo.toml, Node >=24, SQLite only.

License

MIT