Architecture

How the System Works

A user runs:

npx create-awesome-node-app --template <slug> --addons <ext1> <ext2>

CNA resolves each slug to a url in templates.json, downloads the directories, merges them, and writes the final project to disk. The merge order is: base template files → each extension in order.

templates.json Structure

Three top-level keys: categories, templates, extensions.

Every template and extension requires: name, slug, description, url, type, category, labels. Templates may also have customOptions (interactive CLI prompts — see AUTHORING.md).

The Type System

type is what connects templates to extensions. A template has a single string type. An extension has a string or array of strings. An extension is compatible with a template when the template's type appears in the extension's type list.

compatible = [ext.type].flat().includes(template.type)

Template types

Slug	Type
nestjs-boilerplate	nestjs-backend
nextjs-starter	nextjs
turborepo-boilerplate	monorepo
react-vite-boilerplate	react
web-extension-react-boilerplate	webextension-react
webdriverio-boilerplate	webdriverio

Generation Flow

1. Resolve url for template and each selected extension from templates.json
2. Copy static files from template directory
3. Process special files (.template, .append, .if-pnpm) — see AUTHORING.md
4. Rename [bracket]/ directories based on customOptions answers
5. Generate package.json by calling package/index.js (or using the static package.json)
6. Merge extension files and dependencies on top
7. Write final project to disk