create-xpressforge

Scaffold a production-ready Node.js + Express project in seconds — with your choice of architecture, database, auth, and language.

Quick start

npx create-xpressforge my-app

That's it. Follow the prompts, then:

cd my-app
npm install
cp .env.example .env   # add your DB URI and secrets
npm run dev

Interactive prompts

? Project name:          my-app
? Project structure:     MVC  /  Modular  /  Layered
? Database:              MongoDB  /  PostgreSQL  /  MySQL  /  None
? Authentication:        JWT  /  Session  /  None
? Extra features:        Rate limiting, Helmet, CORS, Morgan, Validation, Multer, Socket.io, Swagger
? Language:              JavaScript  /  TypeScript

What gets generated

Running npx create-xpressforge my-app with MVC + MongoDB + JWT produces:

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── config/
│   │   ├── db.js          # MongoDB connection with retry logic
│   │   └── env.js         # Centralised env config
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── authController.js   # register, login, refresh, getMe
│   │   └── userController.js   # full CRUD with pagination
│   ├── middlewares/
│   │   ├── authenticate.js     # JWT verify + role-based authorize()
│   │   ├── errorHandler.js     # global error handler
│   │   └── notFound.js
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── User.js             # Mongoose schema with indexes
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── index.js
│   │   ├── authRoutes.js
│   │   └── userRoutes.js
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── userService.js
│   └── utils/
│       ├── apiResponse.js      # sendSuccess / sendError / sendPaginated
│       └── logger.js           # coloured console logger
├── .env                        # pre-filled with your choices
├── .env.example                # safe to commit
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── README.md                   # auto-generated for your stack
└── server.js

API endpoints (out of the box)

| Method | Endpoint | Description | Auth | | -------- | ----------------------- | -------------------- | -------- | | POST | /api/v1/auth/register | Register a new user | — | | POST | /api/v1/auth/login | Login, get tokens | — | | POST | /api/v1/auth/refresh | Refresh access token | — | | GET | /api/v1/auth/me | Get current user | ✅ | | GET | /api/v1/users | Paginated user list | ✅ | | GET | /api/v1/users/:id | Get user by ID | ✅ | | PUT | /api/v1/users/:id | Update user | ✅ | | DELETE | /api/v1/users/:id | Delete user | ✅ Admin | | GET | /health | Health check | — |

Consistent API response format

Every endpoint returns the same shape — no surprises:

// success
{ "success": true,  "message": "Login successful", "data": { ... } }

// error
{ "success": false, "message": "Invalid email or password" }

// paginated
{ "success": true, "data": [...], "pagination": { "total": 100, "page": 2, "limit": 10, "totalPages": 10 } }

Available scripts

npm run dev      # nodemon hot-reload (JS) / tsx watch (TS)
npm start        # production
npm run build    # compile TypeScript  (TS only)
npm test         # vitest

Global install

npm install -g create-xpressforge
create-xpressforge my-app

Author

Hammad Sadi · [email protected]

License

MIT