create-express-modular

Scaffold a production-ready Express + TypeScript backend in seconds.
Choose your database, your validator, and optionally add JWT auth — all from one interactive CLI.

📖 Full Documentation →

If you find this tool helpful, consider leaving a ⭐ star on GitHub to support the project!

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Installation (Recommended)

Install the CLI globally to access the cem executable across your workspace:

# Using npm (recommended)
npm install -g create-express-modular

Quick Start

Scaffold a new project using the cem CLI (recommended):

# Using globally installed CLI (recommended)
cem my-api

# Or using npx / bunx without global installation
npx create-express-modular my-api
# or
bunx create-express-modular my-api

Then start developing:

cd my-api
cem dev

Your server is live at http://localhost:5000. ✅

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What Gets Generated

Answer 5 prompts — get a complete, wired-up backend:

Prompt	Options
Database / ORM	Mongoose · Prisma · Drizzle
Validator	Zod · Joi
JWT Auth	Yes / No (bcrypt + refresh tokens + rate limiting)
Token delivery	HTTP-only cookies · Authorization header
Docker	Yes / No (Dockerfile + docker-compose + DB sidecar)

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🤖 AI Coding Assistants (Cursor & Claude Ready)

To support seamless development with AI assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, etc.), the CLI automatically scaffolds custom configuration context files during project initialization:

• AGENTS.md — Universal rules detailing code style, technology choices, strictly-enforced directory structure guidelines, and available CLI tools.
• CLAUDE.md — Full project context for Claude with real boilerplates (Controllers, Services, Routes, schemas, and Models) specifically tailored to the scaffolded stack.

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CLI Commands

🛠️ Project Management

Command	Description
cem dev	Start the dev server with live reload
cem build	Run guards + compile TypeScript to dist/
cem start	Start the production server with preflight checks
cem check	Run type-check, lint, and format checks in one command
cem list	Show a snapshot of modules, middlewares, and env vars

➕ Generating Features

Command	Description
cem add module <Name...>	Scaffold one or more complete feature modules
cem add middleware <name...>	Create one or more middleware files under src/app/middlewares/
cem add env <KEY...>	Add one or more env vars to .env, .env.example, and config

❌ Removing Features

Command	Description
cem remove module <Name...>	Delete module directory(ies) and unwire routes
cem remove middleware <name...>	Delete one or more custom middleware files
cem remove env <KEY...>	Remove env var(s) from all configurations

💡 Command Shortcuts / Aliases:

• cem rm is an alias for cem remove
• cem ls is an alias for cem list

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Requirements

• Node.js: >= 18
• Package Manager: npm >= 9 · yarn >= 1.22 · pnpm >= 8

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Resources

Link	Description
📖 Full Docs	Complete CLI reference, guides, and examples
DOCS.md	Offline version of the full documentation
ARCHITECTURE.md	Internal project architecture overview
npm	Package page

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Community & Contributing

We welcome community contributions, bug reports, and suggestions!

• Contributing Guide: CONTRIBUTING.md
• Code of Conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• Security Policy: SECURITY.md
• Report Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.