node-student-scaffold

A tiny CLI that scaffolds a beginner-friendly Express + MongoDB starter API for students.

Run it inside an empty (or existing) Git repository and it creates the whole project in the current directory — no nested project folder.

npx node-student-scaffold

What it creates

.
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   └── user.controller.js
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── user.model.js
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── user.routes.js
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── db.js
│   ├── app.js
│   └── server.js
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
└── README.md

• CommonJS (require) — no TypeScript, no bundlers, no framework magic.
• A User CRUD example: GET /api/users, GET /api/users/:id, POST /api/users, PUT /api/users/:id, DELETE /api/users/:id plus GET /health.
• MongoDB is optional. If MONGO_URI is set in .env it uses MongoDB (Mongoose); if not, the CRUD example still works using an in-memory array so students can learn without a database.

Package structure

node-student-scaffold/
├── bin/
│   └── cli.js          # the CLI entry point (declared in package.json "bin")
├── templates/          # the project files copied verbatim into the current dir
│   ├── src/
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── package.json
│   └── README.md
├── test/
│   └── cli.test.js     # smoke tests (node --test, zero dependencies)
├── package.json
└── README.md

How the CLI works

1. npx node-student-scaffold runs bin/cli.js.
2. It checks the current directory: if it already contains files (ignoring .git), it asks "This directory already contains files. Continue? (y/N)". Files are never silently overwritten — answer is anything but y/yes, it aborts.
3. It copies everything from templates/ into process.cwd() using fs.cpSync (recursive: true). The .env.example, .gitignore, and src/… files land directly in the current directory — no nested folder.
4. Any .env you already have is untouched (the templates never include a .env).

Test locally

npm install         # install dev tooling (none required for the CLI itself)
npm link            # make the `node-student-scaffold` command available globally
npm test            # run the smoke tests

# Then try it in a scratch folder:
mkdir /tmp/demo && cd /tmp/demo
node-student-scaffold       # or: npx node-student-scaffold
npm install
npm run dev         # visit http://localhost:3000/health

Publish to npm

npm version patch
npm publish        # requires an npm account + `npm login` first

After publishing, anyone runs npx node-student-scaffold in an empty repo to get the starter project.

Student workflow

git clone <my-github-repo>
cd <repo>

npx node-student-scaffold
npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:3000/health — and read the generated README.md for the API examples.

License

MIT