⚡ Get started in 30 seconds

npm create awesome-node-app@latest my-app

That's it. The interactive wizard walks you through picking a template, addons, and package manager — you're done before your coffee gets cold.

Want to go fully non-interactive? Specify everything up front:

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons material-ui github-setup \
  --no-interactive

✨ Why Create Awesome Node App?

Most scaffolding tools lock you into a single opinionated stack. CNA is different — it's a composable scaffolding engine built around the idea that your stack should be yours.

One CLI. Any stack.

🚀 What you get out of the box

Every project bootstrapped with CNA includes:

• 🧱 Production-ready structure — no empty folders or placeholder files
• 🔷 TypeScript — strict mode, ready to go
• 🧹 ESLint + Prettier — framework-specific rules pre-configured
• 🧪 Testing setup — vitest, jest, playwright, or cypress (depends on template)
• 🤖 AGENTS.md — a contract file so your AI coding assistant understands your project conventions
• 🔄 GitHub Actions workflows — CI, linting, and releases via addons
• 📦 Your choice of package manager — npm, yarn, or pnpm

🌐 Explore the Catalog

Visit create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app to visually browse the full ecosystem:

• 🗂 Templates organized by category (Frontend, Backend, Full Stack, Monorepo, Web Extension, UAT)
• 🧩 Extensions filterable by compatibility
• 📖 Guides on how the generation pipeline works

Or discover everything from your terminal:

# List all available templates
create-awesome-node-app --list-templates

# List addons compatible with a specific template
create-awesome-node-app --template react-vite-boilerplate --list-addons

🧱 Template Ecosystem

→ Full catalog at create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app/templates

🧩 Addons / Extensions

Think of addons as lego bricks — snap them onto any template to add exactly what you need:

Add any extension by slug or URL:

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons material-ui github-setup commitlint \
  --extend https://github.com/your-org/your-custom-extension

🤖 AI-Ready with AGENTS.md

CNA generates an AGENTS.md file in supported templates — a structured document that tells AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.) about:

• Project purpose and conventions
• Directory layout and naming rules
• Scripts and how to use them
• Testing strategy and linting rules

This dramatically improves AI suggestion quality and speeds up onboarding for hybrid human+AI teams.

→ Learn more at create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app/docs/agents-md

🧪 Interactive Mode Walkthrough

When you run CNA without flags (or with --interactive), the wizard guides you through:

1. Project name — set or confirm your app's name
2. Package manager — npm, yarn, or pnpm
3. Category — Frontend, Backend, Full Stack, Monorepo, Web Extension, UAT, or Custom
4. Template — pick from curated options with descriptions and keywords
5. Extensions — multi-select compatible addons grouped by purpose
6. Custom extensions — optionally extend with any additional URLs

The CLI composes a templatesOrExtensions pipeline and generates your workspace in one shot.

⚙️ Requirements

• Node.js >= 22 (enforced at startup — no silent failures)
• npm >= 7, yarn, or pnpm

We recommend fnm for fast Node version switching:

fnm use 22
npm create awesome-node-app@latest my-app

🔍 CLI Reference

Usage: create-awesome-node-app [project-directory] [options]

🛠 Programmatic Usage

Need to integrate CNA into your own tooling? The core is importable:

import { createNodeApp, getTemplateDirPath } from "@create-node-app/core";

Note: The programmatic API is experimental and subject to change. Prefer the CLI for stable usage.

❓ FAQ

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/tree/main/template

🗺 Roadmap

• Remix and SvelteKit template variants
• Additional testing packs (contract, performance, load testing)
• Template version pinning and diff-based upgrade paths
• Rich template analytics and usage metrics

→ Track progress in Issues and Discussions.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make CNA better — templates, addons, bug fixes, docs, ideas. All welcome!

• Main repo: github.com/Create-Node-App/create-node-app
• Template & extension data: github.com/Create-Node-App/cna-templates
• Contributing guide: CONTRIBUTING.md

📜 License

MIT © Create Node App Contributors