🚀 Express Backend Starter CLI

A production-ready CLI tool to scaffold Express.js/Node.js backend projects in seconds.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Interactive Setup - Guided prompts for project configuration
• 🗄️ Multiple Databases - MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or MySQL support
• 📚 Swagger Docs - Auto-generated API documentation
• ✅ Zod Validation - Type-safe request validation
• 📧 Email Support - Nodemailer integration
• 🔒 Security First - Helmet, CORS, rate limiting, JWT auth
• 📁 Clean Architecture - Professional folder structure
• ⚡ Production Ready - Best practices built-in

🚀 Quick Start

Using npx (Recommended)

npx express-backend-starter

Or Install Globally

npm install -g express-backend-starter
express-backend-starter

📋 What Gets Generated?

Always Included

• ✅ Express.js server setup
• ✅ JWT authentication middleware
• ✅ Error handling middleware
• ✅ CORS configuration
• ✅ Rate limiting
• ✅ Helmet security headers
• ✅ Cookie parser
• ✅ Bcrypt password hashing
• ✅ File upload with Multer
• ✅ Environment configuration
• ✅ Professional folder structure

Database Options

• MongoDB → Mongoose ORM
• PostgreSQL → Prisma ORM
• MySQL → Prisma ORM

Optional Features

• 📚 Swagger → API documentation UI
• ✅ Zod → Runtime validation
• 📧 Nodemailer → Email functionality

🎬 Demo

$ npx express-backend-starter

🚀 Welcome to Express Backend Starter CLI

Let's scaffold your backend project...

? What is your project name? my-awesome-api
? Which database do you want to use? MongoDB
? Include Swagger documentation? Yes
? Include Zod validation? Yes
? Include Nodemailer for email functionality? No

✅ Project created successfully!

Next steps:
  cd my-awesome-api
  npm run dev

Happy coding! 🎉

📁 Generated Project Structure

my-awesome-api/
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── README.md
├── package.json
└── src/
    ├── app.js                    # Main application
    ├── config/
    │   ├── db.js                 # Database connection
    │   └── swagger.js            # Swagger config (optional)
    ├── controllers/
    │   └── healthController.js   # Sample controller
    ├── middleware/
    │   ├── auth.js              # JWT authentication
    │   └── errorHandler.js      # Global error handler
    ├── models/
    │   └── User.js              # Sample model
    ├── routes/
    │   └── healthRoutes.js      # Sample routes
    ├── services/                 # Business logic
    └── utils/
        └── validation.js         # Zod schemas (optional)

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Framework: Express.js
• Authentication: JWT (jsonwebtoken)
• Security: Helmet, CORS, express-rate-limit
• Password Hashing: bcryptjs
• File Upload: Multer
• Database ORMs: Mongoose (MongoDB) or Prisma (PostgreSQL/MySQL)
• Documentation: Swagger (optional)
• Validation: Zod (optional)
• Email: Nodemailer (optional)

📖 Usage

1. Run the CLI

npx express-backend-starter

2. Answer the Prompts

The CLI will ask you:

• Project name
• Database choice (MongoDB/PostgreSQL/MySQL)
• Include Swagger? (y/n)
• Include Zod? (y/n)
• Include Nodemailer? (y/n)

3. Navigate to Your Project

cd your-project-name

4. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your settings

5. For Prisma (PostgreSQL/MySQL)

npx prisma migrate dev
npx prisma generate

6. Start Development

npm run dev

Your server will be running at http://localhost:5000

🌐 API Endpoints

Generated project includes:

• GET / - Welcome message
• GET /api/health - Health check
• GET /api/health/info - Server info
• GET /api-docs - Swagger UI (if enabled)

🔧 Available Scripts

{
  "dev": "nodemon src/app.js",    // Development with auto-reload
  "start": "node src/app.js"       // Production start
}

🔐 Environment Variables

The generated .env.example includes:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key
JWT_EXPIRE=7d

# Database URLs (based on your choice)
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/dbname
# or
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/dbname

# Optional
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
[email protected]
# ... and more

📚 Documentation

For detailed development guide, see devGuide.md

🤝 Contributing

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

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

🙏 Credits

Built with:

• Commander.js
• Inquirer.js
• Chalk
• Ora
• Execa

💬 Support

If you have any questions or issues, please open an issue on GitHub.

Made with ❤️ for the Node.js community