Express Backend Create CLI

A powerful CLI tool to scaffold Express.js backend applications with TypeScript support, best practices, and production-ready configurations.

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Express Backend Create CLI is a robust, developer-first command-line tool designed for scaffolding production-ready Express.js applications instantly — just like create-react-app but for your Node.js backend.

npx express-backend-create my-app

No manual setup. No boilerplate hunting. Answer a few questions and your professional backend is running.

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• CLI Experience
• Supported Packages
• What Gets Generated
• Project Structure
• Feature Details
• Adding New Resources
• Adding Cron Jobs
• Error Handling
• Environment Variables
• Available Scripts
• Contributing
• License

Quick Start

Requirements: Node.js >= 18.0.0

# Recommended — pass project name directly
npx express-backend-create my-app

# Or run without a name for interactive guided setup
npx express-backend-create

The CLI will guide you through the configuration, then scaffold and install everything automatically:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  🚀  express-backend-creare
  Scaffold a production-ready Express.js backend instantly
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  ? Project name:               my-app
  ? Select a language:          TypeScript (Recommended)
  ? Select a database:          MongoDB (Mongoose)
  ? Select features to include: Cron Jobs, Rate Limiting, CORS
  ? Default server port:        8080

Next Steps

cd my-app
# fill in your .env values (MONGO_URI, etc.)
npm run dev             # start development server

CLI Experience

The CLI is designed to be clear and informative at every step, using @clack/prompts for a modern terminal experience.

Progress and Feedback

The engine provides real-time feedback during the scaffolding process:

⠋ Scaffolding project files...
✔ Project files created

⠋ Installing dependencies (this may take a minute)...
✔ Dependencies installed

Success and Next Steps

  ✔  Success! Your project is ready at ./my-app

  🏁  Next Steps
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  1.  cd my-app
  2.  npm run dev              ← start the development server
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Health check →  http://localhost:8080/

Supported Packages

The CLI supports a curated selection of industry-standard packages, categorized for clarity:

🗄️ Databases (ORM/ODM)

| Package | Version | Purpose | |---|---|---| | mongoose | ^8.0.0 | MongoDB Object Modeling | | sequelize | ^6.0.0 | SQL ORM (Postgres, MySQL, SQLite) | | pg | ^8.0.0 | PostgreSQL Client | | mysql2 | ^3.0.0 | MySQL Client | | sqlite3 | ^5.0.0 | SQLite Client |

🛡️ Security & Middleware

| Package | Version | Purpose | |---|---|---| | helmet | ^7.0.0 | Secure HTTP Headers | | cors | ^2.8.0 | Cross-Origin Resource Sharing | | express-rate-limit | ^7.0.0 | Request Rate Limiting | | cookie-parser | ^1.4.0 | Cookie Parsing | | morgan | ^1.10.0 | HTTP Request Logging |

☁️ Cloud Services & Utils

| Package | Version | Purpose | |---|---|---| | cron-guardian | ^1.0.0 | Advanced Cron Job Orchestration | | @aws-sdk/client-s3 | ^3.0.0 | AWS S3 Storage | | cloudinary | ^2.0.0 | Cloudinary Media Management | | nodemailer | ^6.9.0 | SMTP Email Delivery | | zod | ^3.0.0 | Type-safe Schema Validation | | joi | ^17.0.0 | Schema Description & Validation |

What Gets Generated

Every project includes a standardized set of files designed for scalability:

| File | Purpose | |---|---| | src/index.[js\|ts] | Main entry point — initializes DB, services, and starts the server. | | src/routes/user.routes.js | Example domain routes with full CRUD implementation. | | src/controllers/user.controller.js| Business logic handlers for the user resource. | | src/middlewares/errorHandler.js | Global, standardized error response handler. | | src/middlewares/logger.js | Custom request performance and telemetry logger. | | src/config/db.js | Centralized database connection logic. | | .env.example | Template for all required environment variables. |

Project Structure

A typical project with MongoDB and all features:

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── index.[js|ts]               # Server entry point
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── db.[js|ts]               # Database connection logic
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   └── user.controller.[js|ts]  # User domain handlers
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   ├── errorHandler.[js|ts]     # Global error handling
│   │   └── logger.[js|ts]           # Request telemetry
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── mongoUser.[js|ts]        # Mongoose User model
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── user.routes.[js|ts]      # User API endpoints
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── email.service.[js|ts]    # External service abstractions
│   └── jobs/
│       └── index.[js|ts]            # Cron job definitions
├── .env.example                     # Environment template
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json                    # (TypeScript projects only)

Feature Details

Advanced Cron Jobs (cron-guardian)

The CLI integrates cron-guardian to provide a robust task scheduling system in src/jobs/index.js.

import cronManager from './jobs/index.js';

// Features include:
// - Automatic retries on failure
// - Overlap prevention for long-running tasks
// - Execution logging and monitoring

Resource Generator (--crud)

Generate entire API resources instantly from your existing models:

npx express-backend-create --crud Product

This will automatically generate:

• src/controllers/product.controller.js
• src/routes/product.routes.js
• Custom validation schemas (if Zod/Joi is selected)

Adding New Resources

1. Define your Model: Add a new schema in src/models/.
2. Generate CRUD: Run the CLI with the --crud flag.
3. Mount Routes: Register the new routes in src/index.js.

Adding Cron Jobs

Scaffolding with the Cron Jobs feature creates a dedicated src/jobs/ directory. You can add new jobs by calling cronManager.schedule() in src/jobs/index.js:

cronManager.schedule(
  '0 0 * * *',           // Cron expression (every day at midnight)
  async () => {
    await performCleanup();
  },
  {
    name: 'daily-cleanup',
    retries: 3,            // Automatic retries on failure
    retryDelay: 5000,      // 5s delay between attempts
    preventOverlap: true,  // Skip if previous run is still active
    onFailure: (err, job) => {
      console.error(`${job.name} failed:`, err.message);
    }
  }
);

Error Handling

All errors are funneled through the global error handler in src/middlewares/errorHandler.js. To trigger it, simply throw an error or pass it to next():

// In a controller
if (!user) {
    const error = new Error('User not found');
    error.status = 404;
    throw error;
}

Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your specific credentials:

| Variable | Description | |---|---| | PORT | The port the HTTP server will listen on (default: 8080). | | MONGODB_URL | Connection string for MongoDB (if selected). | | SQL_DATABASE_URL| Connection string for SQL databases (Postgres, MySQL, etc.). | | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID| AWS credentials for S3 storage (if selected). | | CLOUDINARY_URL | Cloudinary configuration URL (if selected). |

Available Scripts

| Script | Command | Description | |---|---|---| | npm run dev | tsx watch src/index.ts | Starts the server with auto-restart on changes. | | npm start | node dist/index.js | Starts the production-ready compiled server. | | npm run build| tsc | Compiles TypeScript to JavaScript (TS projects only). |

API Reference

Health Check

GET /

Response (200 OK):

{
  "message": "API is running"
}

Used to verify the server status and connectivity.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to the Express Backend Create CLI!

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature.
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature'.
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/amazing-feature.
5. Open a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.