better-ts-stack

Build production-ready TypeScript projects in seconds

An interactive CLI tool that generates fully configured TypeScript projects with your choice of backend framework, database, authentication, and Docker support—all through a guided prompt flow.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Interactive CLI with guided prompts — no flags or subcommands needed
• 📦 Modular architecture — include only what you need
• 🎯 Backend API template (Express.js with TypeScript)
• 🌐 Full-stack template (Next.js 16 with App Router)
• 🗄️ Database integration: PostgreSQL (Prisma or Drizzle) or MongoDB (Mongoose)
• 🔐 Authentication: JWT for Express, Better Auth for Next.js (requires a database)
• 🐳 Optional Docker support with multi-stage builds
• 🔧 TypeScript with strict mode enabled
• 🎨 ESLint + Prettier pre-configured
• ♻️ Hot reload for development

🚀 Quick Start

# Using npx (recommended)
npx better-ts-stack

# Or install globally
npm install -g better-ts-stack
better-ts-stack

Answer the prompts and get a project ready to run.

📋 Prompt Flow

The CLI guides you through these questions in order:

1. Project name — becomes the folder name and package.json name
2. Application type — Backend API or Full-stack
   • Backend: prompts for framework (Express; NestJS coming soon)
   • Full-stack: auto-selects Next.js (no framework prompt)
3. Database type — none, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB
4. ORM/ODM (if a database is selected):
   • PostgreSQL → Prisma or Drizzle
   • MongoDB → Prisma (adapter) or Mongoose
5. Package manager — npm, pnpm, or bun
6. Docker — include Docker configuration? (yes/no)
7. Authentication — add auth?
   • Express: JWT-based auth (always available)
   • Next.js: Better Auth (only prompted when a database is selected)
8. Git — initialize a git repository and create an initial commit? (yes/no)
9. Install dependencies — run the install command now? (yes/no)

Note: The CLI does not ask for a port. The server port defaults to 3000 via the PORT environment variable.

📦 What You Get

After running the CLI you have a fully configured project with:

• TypeScript in strict mode across all generated files
• ESLint and Prettier configuration
• Environment variable setup (.env.example / .env)
• A health check endpoint (GET /health) for backend projects
• Database connection and ORM setup (if selected)
• Authentication scaffolding (if selected)
• Docker files (if selected)
• Optional git repository with an initial commit

🧩 Available Modules

Backend — Express (always included for backend type)

• Express.js server with TypeScript
• Middleware: cors, helmet, morgan
• Health check route at /health
• dev, build, start, lint, format, type:check scripts

Frontend — Next.js (always included for fullstack type)

• Next.js 16 with React 19 and App Router
• Tailwind CSS v4
• dev, build, start, lint scripts
• A proxy configuration file (proxy.ts) rendered from a Handlebars template

Database modules

Combination	Template files generated
PostgreSQL + Prisma (Express)	prisma/schema.prisma, src/lib/prisma.ts
PostgreSQL + Prisma (Next.js)	prisma/schema.prisma, lib/prisma.ts, prisma.config.ts
PostgreSQL + Drizzle (Next.js only)	lib/schema.ts, lib/db.ts, drizzle.config.ts
MongoDB + Mongoose (Express only)	src/lib/db.ts.hbs (rendered)

Auth modules

Context	Implementation	Generated files
Express backend	JWT + bcrypt	src/lib/jwt.ts, src/middleware/requireAuth.ts, src/services/userStore.ts, src/routes/auth.ts, src/controllers/authController.ts
Next.js fullstack	Better Auth (requires database)	lib/auth.ts, lib/auth-client.ts, app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts

Docker module

Files generated
Dockerfile (multi-stage, framework-aware)
docker-compose.yml
.dockerignore

Scripts added: docker:build, docker:up, docker:down, docker:logs

🔧 Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 18+ with TypeScript 5.x
Backend framework	Express.js 4
Frontend framework	Next.js 16 / React 19
Database ORMs	Prisma, Drizzle, Mongoose
Auth	JWT (jsonwebtoken + bcrypt) / Better Auth
Hot reload	tsx watch (Express) / next dev (Next.js)
Linting	ESLint 9 with TypeScript plugin
Formatting	Prettier

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request.

📄 License

MIT