create-swayapp

A CLI tool to quickly scaffold Express.js projects with JWT authentication boilerplate. Get started with a production-ready Express.js API in seconds!

Features

✨ Zero Configuration - Get started immediately with a working Express.js + JWT setup
🔒 JWT Authentication - Pre-configured authentication with best practices
📦 Clean Scaffold - No git history, ready for your own repository
✅ Validation - Smart project name validation and directory checks
🎨 Beautiful CLI - Interactive prompts with colored output
🚀 Modern Stack - Built with ES modules and latest Node.js features

Quick Start

npx create-swayapp

That's it! The CLI will guide you through the setup process.

Usage

Basic Usage

Run the command and follow the interactive prompts:

npx create-swayapp

You'll be asked for:

1. Project name - The name of your new project (e.g., my-api)
2. Target directory - Where to create the project (defaults to current directory)

Example

$ npx create-swayapp

🚀 Welcome to create-swayapp!

? Enter your project name: › my-awesome-api
? Enter target directory (leave empty for current directory): › ./projects

📦 Creating project: my-awesome-api...
   Location: /Users/you/projects/my-awesome-api

✅ Project created successfully!
   Git history has been removed - you have a fresh scaffold

Next steps:
  cd projects/my-awesome-api
  npm install
  npm run dev

What's Included?

The scaffolded project includes:

• 🔐 JWT Authentication - Complete auth setup with token generation and verification
• 🛣️ Express.js Server - Configured with best practices and middleware
• 📁 Organized Structure - Clean, modular folder structure
• 🔧 Environment Config - dotenv setup for environment variables
• 📝 Documentation - Starter README with API documentation

Project Name Rules

Project names must:

• Only contain letters (a-z, A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Hyphens (-)
• Underscores (_)

❌ Invalid: my app, my@app, my.app
✅ Valid: my-app, my_app, myapp, MyApp123

Features in Detail

Directory Existence Check

The CLI checks if a directory already exists and prompts you to confirm before overwriting.

Graceful Cancellation

Press Ctrl+C or cancel any prompt to safely exit without creating partial files.

Custom Target Directory

Specify where you want to create your project:

• . - Current directory (default)
• ./projects - In a subdirectory
• ../sibling - In a sibling directory
• /absolute/path - Absolute path

Clean Git History

The scaffolded project has no git history from the template. You get a fresh start, ready to initialize your own git repository:

cd my-awesome-api
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Requirements

• Node.js 14.x or higher
• npm 6.x or higher

Template

This CLI clones the express-jwt-scaffold template, which provides a solid foundation for building REST APIs with Express.js and JWT authentication.

Troubleshooting

Permission Errors

If you encounter permission errors, try running with sudo (not recommended) or fix your npm permissions:

npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global

Network Errors

If cloning fails, check your internet connection and ensure GitHub is accessible.

Directory Already Exists

The CLI will prompt you to confirm before overwriting. Choose "No" to cancel or "Yes" to proceed.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT © Swayam Prajapat

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Template Repository
• Report Issues

Made with ❤️ by Swayam Prajapat