I got tired of setting up MERN projects, so I built a VS Code extension to automate it

Md Farhan Habib — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 06:55:26 +0000

Hey everyone!

I've been building a lot of MERN stack projects lately, and honestly, the most annoying part is always the initial setup.

Every single time, I had to create the same frontend and backend folders, run npm init, install the same 10-15 packages (Express, Mongoose, Vite, bcrypt, etc.), setup the .env files, and write the exact same authentication boilerplate. It easily ate up 30-40 minutes before I could even write a single line of actual feature logic.

I realized I was just copy-pasting my old code. So, I figured, why not automate the whole thing?

That's how I ended up building MERN DevBoost—my very first VS Code extension.

What it actually does:
Instead of doing things manually, you just open the Command Palette, run a command, and it generates:

The complete MERN folder structure.

A pre-configured Express server and Vite React frontend.

Basic auth and database connection files.

But then I realized, just setting up folders isn't enough. The real pain is writing repetitive CRUD operations. So I added a couple more features:

Auto-CRUD Generator: You type a resource name (like product), and it generates the Mongoose Model, Controller (with try-catch blocks), and Routes instantly.

Advanced Auth: If basic auth isn't enough, it can generate Role-Based Access Control (Admin/User) and password reset logic with one click.

One thing I noticed with other boilerplate tools is that after generating the code, you kinda feel lost. To fix that, I made the extension automatically open a simple DEVBOOST_GUIDE.md file right inside VS Code once the scaffolding is done. It tells you exactly what terminal commands to run next and how to test your new APIs in Postman.

Try it out!
Since this is my first time publishing something like this to the VS Code Marketplace, I’m really excited but also looking for ways to improve it.

If you work with the MERN stack and hate doing the setup manually, I'd love for you to give it a try. What should I add next? Did I miss any crucial security packages? Any feedback is welcome!

VS Code Marketplace: [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=habibcodes.mern-devboost]

GitHub Repo: [https://github.com/Farhan043/mern-devboost]

Happy coding!

DEV Community: Md Farhan Habib

I got tired of setting up MERN projects, so I built a VS Code extension to automate it