🚀 Express Setup Kit

⚡ A powerful CLI tool to instantly scaffold a production-ready Express.js server with best practices and modern folder structure.

Say goodbye to repetitive Express.js setup! Express Setup Kit generates a complete, organized Express server boilerplate in seconds, so you can focus on building your application logic rather than configuring the basics.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Zero Configuration - Get started instantly with sensible defaults
• 📁 Organized Structure - Professional folder organization following industry standards
• 🔒 Security First - Comes with Helmet.js and CORS pre-configured
• 📊 Logging Ready - Morgan logger integrated for request tracking
• 🌍 Environment Variables - Dotenv setup with .env file generation
• 🚀 Hot Reload - Nodemon configured for development workflow
• 🏥 Health Check - Built-in health endpoint for monitoring
• 🛡️ Error Handling - Centralized error handling middleware
• 💾 Database Ready - Placeholder for database connection setup

📦 Installation

Global Installation (Recommended)

npm install -g express-setup-kit

One-time Usage with npx

npx express-setup-kit

🚀 Quick Start

1. Run the CLI tool:

   express-setup-kit

2. Enter your project name when prompted (default: "server")

3. Install dependencies when asked (recommended: Yes)

4. Navigate to your project and start coding:

   cd your-project-name
   npm run dev

Your Express server will be running at http://localhost:8080 🎉

📋 What Gets Generated

📁 Project Structure

your-project/
├── src/
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── db.js              # Database configuration
│   ├── controllers/           # Route controllers
│   ├── middlewares/
│   │   └── errorHandler.js    # Centralized error handling
│   ├── models/                # Data models
│   ├── routes/                # API routes
│   ├── utils/                 # Utility functions
│   └── server.js              # Main application file
├── .env                       # Environment variables
└── package.json              # Dependencies and scripts

🛠️ Generated Files

src/server.js - Main Application

• Express app configuration
• Middleware setup (CORS, Helmet, Morgan)
• Health check endpoint (/health)
• Welcome route (/)
• Error handling middleware
• Server startup logic

src/config/db.js - Database Configuration

• Database connection placeholder
• Ready to integrate with MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.

src/middlewares/errorHandler.js - Error Handling

• Centralized error handling middleware
• Proper error responses and logging

.env - Environment Variables

• PORT configuration (default: 8080)
• Ready for additional environment variables

📦 Included Dependencies

Production Dependencies:

• express ^4.18.2 - Fast, unopinionated web framework
• cors ^2.8.5 - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing middleware
• helmet ^7.0.0 - Security middleware for HTTP headers
• morgan ^1.10.0 - HTTP request logging middleware
• dotenv ^16.0.3 - Environment variable loader

Development Dependencies:

• nodemon ^3.1.0 - Auto-restart during development

🎯 Available Scripts

npm start     # Start production server
npm run dev   # Start development server with auto-reload

🔧 Customization

Environment Variables

The generated .env file includes:

PORT=8080

Add more variables as needed:

PORT=8080
NODE_ENV=development
DB_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/myapp
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key

Database Integration

Replace the placeholder in src/config/db.js:

MongoDB Example:

import mongoose from 'mongoose';

export const connectDB = async () => {
  try {
    await mongoose.connect(process.env.DB_URL);
    console.log('✅ MongoDB connected successfully');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('❌ Database connection failed:', error.message);
    process.exit(1);
  }
};

PostgreSQL Example:

import pkg from 'pg';
const { Pool } = pkg;

const pool = new Pool({
  connectionString: process.env.DB_URL,
});

export const connectDB = async () => {
  try {
    await pool.connect();
    console.log('✅ PostgreSQL connected successfully');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('❌ Database connection failed:', error.message);
    process.exit(1);
  }
};

🛣️ Adding Routes

Create route files in src/routes/:

// src/routes/users.js
import express from 'express';
const router = express.Router();

router.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Users endpoint' });
});

router.post('/', (req, res) => {
  // Create user logic
  res.json({ message: 'User created' });
});

export default router;

Import and use in server.js:

import userRoutes from './routes/users.js';
app.use('/api/users', userRoutes);

🏥 Health Check

The generated server includes a built-in health check endpoint:

GET /health

Response:

{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "All systems operational",
  "timestamp": "2025-09-28T10:30:00.000Z"
}

🔒 Security Features

• Helmet.js - Sets various HTTP headers for security
• CORS - Configurable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
• Error Handling - Prevents sensitive information leakage
• Input Validation - Express built-in body parsing with limits

🤝 Contributing

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

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

📝 License

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

🙋‍♂️ Author

Arpit Rai

• GitHub: @arpitr18

⭐ Show Your Support

Give a ⭐️ if this project helped you!

📚 Changelog

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• Basic Express.js server generation
• Folder structure scaffolding
• Essential middleware integration
• Environment variable setup