Express TS App Generator

A minimal and easy-to-use generator for bootstrapping Express.js projects with TypeScript support out of the box.
This package helps developers save time by setting up a clean project structure, installing essential dependencies, and providing ready-to-use configuration files.

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🔧 Installation

You can use this package in two ways:

1. Using npx (recommended)

Run the generator directly without installing globally:

• npm i express-ts-app-generator

• npx express-ts-app-generator my-app

• This will create a new folder called my-app with all files scaffolded.

2. Installing globally -g

• If you want to use the CLI command without npx

• npm install -g express-ts-app-generator

• Then you can generate a project with:

• express-ts-app-generator my-app

🛠 Usage

• Once the project is generated:

cd my-app npm install npm run dev

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🚀 Features

• ⚡ Quickly generate a new Express + TypeScript project.
• 🏗 Pre-configured TypeScript with tsconfig.json.
• 🔥 Integrated Express.js boilerplate.
• 🌿 Environment variables handled with dotenv.
• 🧩 Simple and extensible folder structure.

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📦 Packages Used

These are the packages that the generated app will include.

1) Runtime dependencies (always installed)

• express – Minimal, fast web framework for building HTTP APIs and servers.
• cors – Express middleware to enable/handle Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.
• helmet – Security middleware that sets sensible HTTP headers.

2) Optional database dependencies

• mongoose (MongoDB) – ODM for MongoDB; schema/model layer + helpers for queries/validation.
• pg (PostgreSQL) – Official PostgreSQL client for Node.js.
• pg-hstore (PostgreSQL) – Serializer/parser for PostgreSQL hstore data type (commonly used by ORMs like Sequelize; if you don’t use hstore, you might not need it).

3) DevDependencies (always installed)

• eslint – Pluggable linter to catch problems and enforce code style.
• prettier – Opinionated code formatter for consistent styling.

4) DevDependencies (only when TypeScript is chosen)

• typescript – TypeScript compiler and language services.
• ts-node – Execute TypeScript files directly in Node (useful for scripts/CLIs).
• tsx – Fast TS/ESM runner (used in the dev script to run src/index.ts without manual build).
• @types/node – Type definitions for Node.js APIs.
• @types/express – Type definitions for Express.
• @types/cors – Type definitions for cors.
• @types/helmet – Type definitions for helmet.

ℹ️ Notes

• The generator writes package.json with dev, build, and start scripts. For TypeScript: dev uses tsx, build uses tsc, and start runs the compiled output.
• .gitignore includes node_modules, dist, and .env by default.

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This will start the development server with ts-node-dev (or whichever runner you configured). ❓ Why use this generator?

Setting up Express.js with TypeScript manually can be repetitive:

Creating and configuring tsconfig.json

Installing and setting up express with proper typings

Configuring dotenv for environment variables

Defining folder structure (src/, routes/, controllers/, etc.)

Writing the boilerplate server.ts

👉 This generator automates all those steps, so you can focus on writing actual application logic instead of repeating setup tasks.

📂 Project Structure (generated)

my-app/ ├── src/ │ ├── index.ts # Entry point │ ├── routes/ # Example routes │ ├── controllers/ # Example controllers │ ├── tsconfig.json ├── package.json ├── .env.example

📜 License

MIT © 2025 AmirHosein Ashkani