Express Project Scaffolder

🚀 The fastest way to scaffold professional Express.js projects with TypeScript/JavaScript support, JWT authentication, and scalable architecture

An interactive CLI tool that creates production-ready Express.js backend projects with a well-organized folder structure, JWT authentication system, professional middleware, and best practices built-in.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Interactive Setup - Guided prompts for all project preferences
• 📘 TypeScript & JavaScript - Full support for both languages
• 🔐 JWT Authentication - Complete auth system with registration, login, and protected routes
• 🛡️ Security First - Password hashing with bcrypt, secure JWT implementation
• 📦 Multiple Package Managers - npm, yarn, and pnpm support
• 🏗️ Scalable Architecture - Professional folder structure with config, middleware, utils
• ⚡ Development Ready - Pre-configured Nodemon, TypeScript, and more
• 📝 Professional Middleware - Error handling, logging, and authentication middleware
• 🔧 Environment Setup - .env configuration with JWT secrets and database config
• 🔄 Git Integration - Optional repository initialization
• 🚀 Auto Installation - Dependencies installed automatically

🚀 Quick Start

One-time Usage (without installation, Recommended ✅)

npx express-project-scaffolder

📁 Generated Project Structure

your-awesome-api/
├── src/
│   ├── config/               # Configuration files
│   │   └── database.ts       # Database configuration
│   ├── controllers/          # Route handler logic
│   │   └── userController.ts # Example controller (optional)
│   ├── middlewares/          # Custom middleware
│   │   ├── auth.ts           # JWT authentication middleware
│   │   └── errorHandler.ts   # Global error handler
│   ├── routes/               # API route definitions
│   │   ├── index.ts          # Health check routes
│   │   └── auth.ts           # Authentication routes
│   ├── utils/                # Helper functions
│   │   └── logger.ts         # Logging utility
│   ├── models/               # Data models & schemas (optional)
│   │   └── User.ts           # Example model (optional)
│   └── app.ts                # Express app setup
├── dist/                     # Compiled output (TypeScript)
├── .env                      # Environment variables with JWT secret
├── .gitignore               # Sensible Git ignore rules
├── index.ts                 # Main application entry
├── package.json             # Dependencies & scripts
├── tsconfig.json            # TypeScript configuration
├── nodemon.json             # Development server config
└── README.md                # Comprehensive project documentation

🎨 What You Get

🔧 Pre-configured Tools

• Express.js - Fast, minimalist web framework
• TypeScript - Type safety and modern JavaScript features
• JWT Authentication - Complete auth system with jsonwebtoken
• Bcrypt - Secure password hashing
• Nodemon - Auto-restart during development
• CORS - Cross-origin resource sharing
• Professional Middleware - Error handling, logging, authentication
• Environment Variables - Secure configuration management

📋 Ready-to-Use Scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node dist/index.js",
    "dev": "nodemon",
    "build": "tsc"
  }
}

🎯 Example API Endpoints

• GET / - Welcome message with timestamp
• GET /api/health - Health check endpoint
• POST /api/auth/register - User registration with JWT
• POST /api/auth/login - User login with JWT
• GET /api/auth/profile - Protected route example (requires JWT)
• Example controller patterns for rapid development

🛠️ Interactive Setup Process

The CLI will guide you through:

1. 📝 Project Name - Choose your project directory name
2. 📘 Language Choice - TypeScript or JavaScript
3. 📦 Package Manager - npm, yarn, or pnpm
4. 📄 Documentation - Include README.md file
5. 📁 Example Code - Add sample controllers and models
6. ⬇️ Dependencies - Auto-install packages
7. 🔧 Git Setup - Initialize Git repository

🔥 Usage Examples

Basic Workflow

# Create new project
create-express-app

# Follow the prompts...
✓ Project name: my-awesome-api
✓ Use TypeScript? Yes
✓ Package manager: npm
✓ Include README? Yes
✓ Include examples? Yes
✓ Install dependencies? Yes
✓ Initialize Git? Yes

# Navigate and start developing
cd my-awesome-api
npm run dev

Generated TypeScript Project

import express from 'express';
import type { Request, Response } from 'express';
import cors from 'cors';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config();

const app = express();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

// Middleware
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(cors());

// Routes
app.get('/', (_: Request, res: Response) => {
  res.json({
    message: 'Hello, world!',
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
  });
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

🎯 Perfect For

• 🚀 Rapid Prototyping - Get APIs up and running in seconds
• 🏢 Enterprise Projects - Professional structure and best practices
• 🎓 Learning - Well-documented examples and patterns
• 👥 Team Development - Consistent project structure across teams

🔧 Advanced Features

Environment Configuration

PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=development

# JWT Secret (change this in production!)
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_jwt_key_change_this_in_production

# Database
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
DB_NAME=myapp_dev
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=password

# API Keys
# API_KEY=your_api_key_here

TypeScript Configuration

• Strict type checking enabled
• ES2020 target for modern features
• Source maps for debugging
• Declaration files for libraries

Development Experience

• Hot reload with Nodemon
• Instant TypeScript compilation
• Comprehensive error reporting
• Git-ready project structure

📦 Dependencies Included

Core Runtime

• express - Web application framework
• cors - Enable cross-origin requests
• dotenv - Environment variable management
• jsonwebtoken - JWT token generation and verification
• bcryptjs - Password hashing and validation

TypeScript Development

• typescript - TypeScript compiler
• ts-node - TypeScript execution engine
• @types/node - Node.js type definitions
• @types/express - Express type definitions
• @types/jsonwebtoken - JWT type definitions
• @types/bcryptjs - Bcrypt type definitions
• nodemon - Development server with auto-restart

🚀 Next Steps After Generation

# Start development
npm run dev

# Test the authentication system
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email": "[email protected]", "password": "password123"}'

# Add more dependencies as needed
npm install mongoose sequelize prisma

# Build for production
npm run build

# Deploy to production
npm start

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Feel free to:

• Report bugs
• Suggest new features
• Submit pull requests
• Improve documentation

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🙋‍♂️ Support

• 📖 Documentation
• 🐛 Report Issues
• 💬 Discussions

Made with ❤️ for the Node.js community

Stop wasting time on boilerplate. Start building features that matter.