I Got Tired of Copying the Same MERN Boilerplate, So I Built a CLI

Shivam Gupta — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 19:47:09 +0000

The problem every full-stack dev knows

Every time I start a new project, the first hour looks the same:

npm create vite@latest → pick React → set up Tailwind
Create a server/ folder → npm init → install Express, Mongoose, dotenv, cors
Write the same db.js connection file
Copy CORS config from my last project
Set up the proxy in vite.config.js
Copy the same JWT auth code if I need login
Wire up React Router, protected routes, the whole thing

By the time I actually start building features, I'm already mentally drained. And every project's boilerplate was slightly different because I'd "improve" it each time.

So I built QuickStack — a CLI that does steps 1–7 in one command.

What it does

npx create-quickstack-app my-app

That’s it. You get:

What	Tech
Frontend	React + Vite + Tailwind CSS
Backend	Express.js + Mongoose
Auth (optional)	JWT + bcrypt + httpOnly cookies
DX	NPM Workspaces, Axios preconfigured, one `npm run dev`

You pick your stability level

I noticed that some devs want the latest and greatest (React 19, Tailwind 4), while others want battle-tested versions for production. So QuickStack asks:

Stable → React 18.3, Tailwind v3, React Router v6
Latest → React 19, Tailwind v4, React Router v7

Auth is actually useful

When you choose --auth, you don't just get a login form. You get:

Backend

POST /api/user/register — Create account
POST /api/user/login — Login, sets JWT as httpOnly cookie
POST /api/user/logout — Clears session
GET /api/user/me — Returns current user (protected)

Frontend

Login and Signup pages with forms
ProtectedRoute component that redirects to /login
Auth service with Axios interceptors
React Router setup with all routes wired

This isn't a TODO app auth example. This is what I actually use in production.

How it's built

The CLI uses:

commander for argument parsing (--auth, --stable, --latest, --yes)
@inquirer/prompts for interactive prompts
fs-extra for template copying
chalk for terminal output

Instead of string-templating files (which is fragile), QuickStack copies real, working project directories and patches them based on your choices. The templates in the repo are actual runnable code — you can cd into them and they work.

The version-specific stuff (React 18 vs 19, Tailwind 3 vs 4) is handled by a preset engine that rewrites package.json dependencies and config files after copying the base template.

Getting started

npx create-quickstack-app my-app
cd my-app
npm run dev

Client → http://localhost:5173
Server → http://localhost:5000

What’s next

TypeScript template variant
Docker Compose included in scaffold
PostgreSQL + Prisma as a database option
More framework options (Next.js?)

Final thoughts

If this saves you even 30 minutes on your next project, I'll consider it a win.

Would love to hear what features you'd want — feel free to open an issue or drop feedback.

If you found this useful, a ⭐ on the GitHub repo would mean a lot. Thanks for reading!

DEV Community: Shivam Gupta