ZeroStarter - The SaaS Starter

A modern, type-safe, and high-performance SaaS starter template built with a monorepo architecture.

• 📚 Documentation: For comprehensive documentation, visit https://zerostarter.dev/docs.
• 🤖 AI/LLM Users: For optimized documentation, use https://zerostarter.dev/llms.txt.
• 🐦 X: Follow @nrjdalal for updates and don't forget to star the repository!

[!IMPORTANT] Release Candidate (RC) Status: ZeroStarter is currently in Release Candidate (RC) status. All implemented features are stable and production-ready. We're actively adding new features and integrations day-by-day.

Architecture and Tech Stack

• Runtime & Build System: Bun + Turborepo
• Frontend: Next.js 16
• Backend: Hono
• RPC: Hono Client for end-to-end type safety with frontend client
• Database: PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM
• Authentication: Better Auth
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• UI Components: Shadcn UI
• Data Fetching: TanStack Query
• Validation: Zod
• Bundling, Linting & Formatting: tsdown, Oxlint and Prettier
• Documentation: Fumadocs with auto-generated llms.txt
• Automated Releases: Automatically updated Changelog on release

Future Stack and Features

• AI
  • [ ] Vercel AI SDK
• Analytics:
  • [ ] Posthog
• Background Tasks:
  • [ ] Inngest
  • [ ] Trigger.dev
• Email:
  • [ ] Resend
  • [ ] SendGrid
• OpenAPI:
  • [ ] Scalar
• Organization/teams:
  • [ ] Better Auth
• Internationalization:
  • [ ] i18next
  • [ ] next-intl
• Payment Processing:
  • [ ] Autumn
  • [ ] Creem
  • [ ] Dodo
  • [ ] Lemon Squeezy
  • [ ] Paddle
  • [ ] Polar
  • [ ] Razorpay
  • [ ] Stripe

📂 Project Structure

This project is a monorepo organized as follows:

.
├── api/
│   └── hono/      # Backend API server (Hono)
├── web/
│   └── next/      # Frontend application (Next.js)
└── packages/
    ├── auth/      # Shared authentication logic (Better Auth)
    ├── db/        # Database schema and Drizzle configuration
    ├── env/       # Type-safe environment variables
    └── tsconfig/  # Shared TypeScript configuration

🔌 Type-Safe API Client

This starter utilizes Hono RPC to provide end-to-end type safety between the backend and frontend.

• Backend: Routes defined in api/hono/src/routers are exported as AppType at api/hono/src/index.ts.
• Frontend: The client at web/next/src/lib/api/client.ts infers AppType request/response types using hono/client.

Usage Example

import { apiClient } from "@/lib/api/client"

// Fully typed request and response
const res = await apiClient.health.$get()
const data = await res.json()

⚙️ Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Bun (v1.3.0 or later)

Installation

1. Clone this template:

   bunx gitpick https://github.com/nrjdalal/zerostarter/tree/main
   cd zerostarter

   Note: The main branch is the latest stable release.

2. Install dependencies:

   bun install

   Note: If the installation fails, try using bun install --ignore-scripts

3. Set up environment variables:

   Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

   # -------------------- Server variables --------------------
   
   HONO_APP_URL=http://localhost:4000
   HONO_TRUSTED_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000
   
   # Generate using `openssl rand -base64 32`
   BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=
   
   # Generate at `https://github.com/settings/developers`
   GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=
   GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=
   
   # Generate at `https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials`
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=
   
   # Generate using `bunx pglaunch -k`
   POSTGRES_URL=
   
   # -------------------- Client variables --------------------
   
   NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3000
   NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:4000

Database Setup

1. Ensure your PostgreSQL server is running.

2. Run the generation:

   bun run db:generate

3. Run the migration:

   bun run db:migrate

Authentication Setup

ZeroStarter comes with some default authentication plugins using Better Auth, you can extend as needed.

Github

1. Create a GitHub OAuth App at GitHub Developer Settings.
2. Set the Homepage URL to http://localhost:3000.
3. Set the Authorization callback URL to http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/github.
4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret into your .env file.

Google

1. Create a Google OAuth App in the [Google Cloud Console](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials.
2. Configure the OAuth consent screen (External).
3. Create an OAuth Client ID (Application type: Web).
4. Set the Authorized JavaScript origins to http://localhost:3000.
5. Set the Authorized redirect URI to http://localhost:4000/api/auth/callback/google.
6. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret into your .env file.

Running the Application

bun dev

Running the Application with Docker Compose

docker compose up

Accessing the Application

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• Backend: http://localhost:4000

📜 Scripts

Development

• bun run dev: Start the development servers.

Maintenance

• bun run clean: Clean the cache and build artifacts.
• bun run lint: Lint the codebase using Oxlint.
• bun run format: Format the codebase using Prettier.
• bun run check-types: Check the types of the codebase.

Production

• bun run build: Build the applications.
• bun run start: Start the production servers.

Database

• bun run db:generate: Generate Drizzle migrations.
• bun run db:migrate: Run Drizzle migrations.
• bun run db:studio: Open Drizzle Studio to view/edit data.

📖 Deployment

• Frontend:
  • Vercel
• Backend:
  • Vercel

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome — any help is appreciated!

• Fork the repo and create a branch (use descriptive names, e.g. feat/{name} or fix/{name}).
• Make your changes, add tests if applicable, and run the checks:
  • bun run build
  • bun run check-types
  • bun run format
  • bun run lint
• Follow the existing code style and commit message conventions (use conventional commits: feat, fix, docs, chore).
• Open a PR describing the change, motivation, and any migration notes; link related issues.
• For breaking changes or large features, open an issue first to discuss the approach.
• By contributing you agree to the MIT license and the project's Code of Conduct.

Thank you for helping improve ZeroStarter!

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.