ZIMT CLI

The secret ingredient for production-ready NestJS applications.

Why it exists

Bootstrapping a NestJS project with Prisma, Docker, JWT auth, and proper RBAC involves 30+ files and hours of wiring. ZIMT handles all of it in seconds, then gets out of your way. Start blank, add what you need.

Quick start

npm install -g zimt-cli

zimt init my-api
cd my-api
cp .env.example .env
npm run prisma:migrate
npm run start:dev

Server running at http://localhost:4000. Health check: GET /health.

Headless API (for tools and AI agents)

Every capability is also exposed as a prompt-free programmatic API — no terminal, no prompts, Result-typed errors:

import { initProject, addAuth, generateFromSql, appendModelToSchema, addCache, cloudify } from 'zimt-cli';

See AI-USAGE.md for the full contract, pipeline order, and the MCP-ready tool manifest.

Note: name-based generation (zimt generate <name>) is CLI-only sugar — it does not write the Prisma schema, so programmatic consumers must use SQL-mode (generateFromSql) exclusively.

Commands

| Command | What it does | Flags | |---------|-------------|-------| | zimt init [name] | Create a blank NestJS project | --pm npm\|yarn\|pnpm\|bun | | zimt new [name] | Alias for zimt init | --pm | | zimt auth | Add JWT auth, user module, RBAC to existing project | — | | zimt create auth | Alias for zimt auth | — | | zimt generate <name> | Generate CRUD resource from a name | --parent <resource> | | zimt g <name> | Alias for zimt generate | --parent | | zimt p <name> | Alias for zimt generate | --parent | | zimt generate create "<SQL>" | Generate resource from SQL CREATE TABLE | --parent <resource> | | zimt p create "<SQL>" | Alias for SQL generation | --parent | | zimt r <entity> | Add Redis cache-aside layer to a service | --ttl <seconds> | | zimt cache <entity> | Alias for zimt r | --ttl |

Generated project structure

After zimt init my-api:

my-api/
├── src/
│   ├── app.module.ts       # Root module (PrismaModule imported)
│   ├── app.controller.ts   # GET /health
│   ├── app.service.ts
│   ├── main.ts
│   └── prisma/
│       ├── prisma.module.ts
│       └── prisma.service.ts
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml      # PostgreSQL 16
├── .env.example
└── package.json

After zimt auth:

src/
├── auth/               # JWT strategy, guards, decorators, login/signup/refresh
├── user/               # User CRUD, RBAC-protected endpoints
├── crypto/             # bcrypt helpers
├── db/user/            # Repository interface + Prisma implementation
└── logger/             # File logger + request logging middleware

After zimt generate orders or zimt p create "CREATE TABLE orders (...)":

src/orders/
├── orders.module.ts
├── orders.controller.ts
├── orders.service.ts
├── orders.repository.ts
├── orders.repository.interface.ts
├── dto/
│   ├── create-orders.dto.ts
│   └── update-orders.dto.ts
├── entities/
│   └── orders.entity.ts
├── orders.service.spec.ts
└── orders.controller.spec.ts
test/orders/
└── orders.e2e-spec.ts

Package manager support

Auto-detected from lockfile in the current directory:

| Lockfile | Detected PM | |----------|-------------| | bun.lockb | bun | | pnpm-lock.yaml | pnpm | | yarn.lock | yarn | | package-lock.json | npm |

Override with --pm: zimt init my-app --pm pnpm

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 20.0.0
• One of: npm, yarn, pnpm, or bun
• Docker (optional, for local database)
• PostgreSQL (via Docker or external)

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/olucens/zimt-cli.

Set NPM_TOKEN in your repository secrets for automated npm publishing via CI/CD.