get-express-starter

A powerful, customizable CLI that scaffolds full-featured Express.js boilerplates with TypeScript or JavaScript — production-ready from day one.

Key Features

• ✅ Choose between TypeScript or JavaScript
• ✅ Select your database: MongoDB or PostgreSQL
• ✅ JWT-based Authentication (login, register, logout)
• ✅ Email workflows: Verify email, Forgot/Reset password
• ✅ Role-based Access Control (RBAC)
• ✅ Centralized User Management System
• ✅ Joi-based Request Validation
• ✅ Built-in Pagination Utilities
• ✅ Security Best Practices (Helmet, CORS, sanitization)
• ✅ Versioned API Routes
• ✅ Winston Logging for errors & requests
• ✅ Centralized Config & ENV management
• ✅ Plop.js-based Code Generator (like NestJS CLI, but unopinionated!)
• ✅ Docker-Ready Setup with docker compose
• ✅ Dev-friendly tooling: Biome / ESLint + Prettier, Husky, lint-staged
• ✅ Supports ESM or CommonJS in JavaScript mode
• ✅ Customizable Templates for rapid feature/module generation

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Installation

npm install -g get-express-starter

Usage

get-express-starter

You'll be prompted to choose:

• Project name

• Language (TypeScript / JavaScript)

• Database (MongoDB / PostgreSQL)

• Code generator setup

Example

$ get-express-starter
✔ Project name: my-api
✔ Language: TypeScript
✔ Database: PostgreSQL

➡️ cd my-api
➡️ pnpm install
➡️ pnpm run dev
➡️ pnpm generate // For code generators, if you added them

Project Templates

Depending on your choices, one of the following templates will be scaffolded:

• Express + MongoDB + TypeScript

• Express + PostgreSQL + TypeScript

• Express + MongoDB + JavaScript

Code Generators

You’ll get built-in support for generating:

• Modules (routes, controllers, services)

• Models

• Middlewares

• Validators

• Utilities

pnpm generate

Docker Support

Each project comes with:

• Dockerfile

• docker-compose.yml

Start your app via Docker:

docker compose up --build

Linting & Formatting

You get a preconfigured dev experience:

• Biome (or ESLint + Prettier)

• Husky + lint-staged (pre-commit hooks)

Script examples:

pnpm lint      # Biome or ESLint
pnpm format    # Prettier or Biome