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Mohammed Samrose
Mohammed Samrose

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I Built a CLI to Scaffold Next.js Apps with Any Stack — No More Boilerplate Hell

#nextjs #cli #opensource #typescript

Every time I started a new Next.js project, I found myself doing the same thing: installing Prisma, wiring up NextAuth, setting up Zustand, configuring tRPC, and copy-pasting Docker files from my last project. It's not hard work — it's tedious work. And after doing it for the fifth time, I decided to stop.

That's how create-samrose-app was born — an opinionated CLI that scaffolds a fully configured Next.js project with your exact stack choices, all in a single command.

The Problem with Boilerplate

Most Next.js starters fall into one of two traps:

  1. Too opinionated — you're locked into one ORM, one auth library, one everything. Swap anything out and you're on your own.
  2. Too bare — you get a blank canvas with zero integrations, and you're back to manually wiring things up.

What I wanted was something in the middle: a CLI that asks what I want, then builds it — correctly wired, production-ready, no leftover config to clean up.

What create-samrose-app Does

Run a single command:

npx create-samrose-app
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Then you get an interactive prompt that walks you through your stack:

? Project name › my-app
? Select ORM › Prisma
? Select Database › PostgreSQL
? Select Auth › NextAuth
? Select UI Library › shadcn/ui
? Select State Management › Zustand
? Select API Layer › tRPC
? Select Testing › Vitest
? Extras › Docker, GitHub Actions, Husky
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And that's it. Your project is scaffolded, every piece talking to every other piece, ready for npm run dev.

What's Supported

ORM

  • Prisma — schema-first, great DX, strong TypeScript support
  • Drizzle — lightweight, SQL-like syntax, gaining fast adoption
  • TypeORM — decorator-based, familiar if you're coming from the Java/Spring world
  • Mongoose — for MongoDB-native workflows

Database

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • SQLite
  • MongoDB

Authentication

  • NextAuth — the community standard for Next.js auth
  • Clerk — drop-in auth with UI components
  • JWT — roll your own, full control

State Management

  • Zustand
  • Redux
  • Recoil

API Layer

  • tRPC — end-to-end typesafe APIs, no REST or GraphQL schema boilerplate
  • oRPC — a newer alternative worth watching
  • GraphQL
  • REST

Testing

  • Jest
  • Vitest

Extras

  • Docker — containerize from day one
  • GitHub Actions — CI/CD out of the box
  • Husky — pre-commit hooks for lint and type checks

How It Works Under the Hood

The CLI is built with Node.js and uses a prompt-driven approach to collect your choices. Based on your selections, it:

  1. Copies a base Next.js template
  2. Conditionally injects the right dependencies into package.json
  3. Scaffolds config files (e.g., prisma/schema.prisma, drizzle.config.ts, auth.ts, trpc/router.ts)
  4. Wires integrations together — for example, if you pick tRPC + Prisma + PostgreSQL, the router already has a database client initialized
  5. Sets up extras like Dockerfile, .github/workflows/ci.yml, and .husky/pre-commit

Every combination is tested to work together — you're not getting a patchwork of copy-pasted snippets.

A Real Example

Say you pick: Drizzle + PostgreSQL + Clerk + tRPC + Zustand + Vitest + Docker.

You'll get:

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── app/              # Next.js App Router
│   ├── server/
│   │   ├── db/           # Drizzle schema + client
│   │   └── api/          # tRPC routers
│   ├── store/            # Zustand stores
│   └── middleware.ts     # Clerk auth middleware
├── drizzle.config.ts
├── .env.example          # All required env vars listed
├── Dockerfile
└── vitest.config.ts
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The .env.example is pre-populated with every variable your stack needs — no hunting through docs to figure out what's required.

Why Not Just Use create-t3-app?

T3 Stack is excellent and was a big inspiration. But it's tightly coupled to its own set of choices (tRPC + Prisma + NextAuth + Tailwind). If you want Drizzle instead of Prisma, or Clerk instead of NextAuth, or Zustand instead of nothing — you're doing manual surgery.

create-samrose-app is built around flexibility. Every layer of the stack is a choice, and every combination is first-class.

Try It 

npx create-samrose-app
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What's Next

There are a few things on the roadmap:

  • Payload CMS integration for headless CMS setups
  • Turborepo support for monorepo scaffolding
  • Storybook as an extras option
  • A --yes flag for non-interactive scaffolding with defaults

If you try it and hit something broken, or have a stack combination you'd love to see supported, open an issue on GitHub. PRs are welcome too — the more combinations that get tested in the wild, the better.

Building create-samrose-app saved me hours on every new project. Hopefully it does the same for you.

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