create-substrat

Scaffold a Substrat vertical.

npm create substrat <dir>
npm create substrat .        # scaffold into the current directory

Full documentation: https://substrat.net/reference/create-substrat

What you get

A project that installs and runs, plus an instruction layer so your AI editor already knows the rules and the build flow:

• src/ — manifest.ts, migrations.ts, module.ts, provision.ts, seed.ts, a Node server.ts for local work, and a worker.ts that mounts the platform surface via @substrat-run/vertical-host.
• test/scenario.test.ts — the scenario test the build flow grows.
• AGENTS.md + .substrat/playbook.md — the rules and the build flow, read by Claude Code, Cursor, and opencode alike; each gets its own command stub.
• Generated package.json, tsconfig.json, vitest.config.ts, .gitignore, README.md, including the substrat block that substrat push reads — so you never author wrangler config.

The scaffolder writes the skeleton; the agent writes the vertical, guided by the playbook.

cd <dir> && pnpm install
# then, in your AI editor:
#   Claude Code:       /substrat
#   Cursor / opencode: the new-vertical command

Don't add zod

Substrat is on Zod 4, and Zod schemas do not compose across copies or majors — mixing two makes z.object({ facility: entityRef }) fail at runtime with expected a Zod schema, pointing nowhere near the cause. Import z from contracts instead, and never install zod:

import { z, entityRef, money } from '@substrat-run/contracts';

Dependency-free by design

Node built-ins only, no build step. It can never break at install time and damage the name it exists to protect.

Note on the name

substrat on npm is an unrelated package — an HTML5 build system published in 2013. Substrat's own packages are all under the @substrat-run scope. Never npm install substrat.

Docs · Repo · Apache-2.0