bun-types/docs/runtime/templating/create.mdx

Type definitions and documentation for Bun, an incredibly fast JavaScript runtime

---
title: bun create
description: Create a new Bun project from a React component, a `create-<template>` npm package, a GitHub repo, or a local template
---

<Note>
  You don't need `bun create` to use Bun. You don't need any configuration at all. This command exists to make getting
  started a bit quicker and easier.
</Note>

---

Template a new Bun project with `bun create`. This is a flexible command that can be used to create a new project from a React component, a `create-<template>` npm package, a GitHub repo, or a local template.

If you're looking to create a brand new empty project, use [`bun init`](/docs/runtime/templating/init).

## From a React component

`bun create ./MyComponent.tsx` turns an existing React component into a complete dev environment with hot reload and production builds in one command.

```bash
$ bun create ./MyComponent.jsx # .tsx also supported
```

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      src="/images/bun-create-shadcn.mp4"
      style={{ width: "100%", height: "100%", objectFit: "contain" }}
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<Note>
🚀 **Create React App Successor** — `bun create <component>` provides everything developers loved about Create React App, but with modern tooling, faster builds, and backend support.
</Note>

#### How this works

When you run `bun create <component>`, Bun:

1. Uses [Bun's JavaScript bundler](/docs/bundler) to analyze your module graph.
2. Collects all the dependencies needed to run the component.
3. Scans the exports of the entry point for a React component.
4. Generates a `package.json` file with the dependencies and scripts needed to run the component.
5. Installs any missing dependencies using [`bun install --only-missing`](/docs/pm/cli/install).
6. Generates the following files:
   - `${component}.html`
   - `${component}.client.tsx` (entry point for the frontend)
   - `${component}.css` (css file)
7. Starts a frontend dev server automatically.

### Using TailwindCSS with Bun

[TailwindCSS](https://tailwindcss.com/) is an extremely popular utility-first CSS framework used to style web applications.

When you run `bun create <component>`, Bun scans your JSX/TSX file for TailwindCSS class names (and any files it imports). If it detects TailwindCSS class names, it will add the following dependencies to your `package.json`:

```json package.json icon="file-json"
{
  "dependencies": {
    "tailwindcss": "^4",
    "bun-plugin-tailwind": "latest"
  }
}
```

We also configure `bunfig.toml` to use Bun's TailwindCSS plugin with `Bun.serve()`

```toml bunfig.toml icon="settings"
[serve.static]
plugins = ["bun-plugin-tailwind"]
```

And a `${component}.css` file with `@import "tailwindcss";` at the top:

```css MyComponent.css icon="file-code"
@import "tailwindcss";
```

### Using `shadcn/ui` with Bun

[`shadcn/ui`](https://ui.shadcn.com/) is an extremely popular component library tool for building web applications.

`bun create <component>` scans for any shadcn/ui components imported from `@/components/ui`.

If it finds any, it runs:

```bash terminal icon="terminal"
# Assuming bun detected imports to @/components/ui/accordion and @/components/ui/button
bunx shadcn@canary add accordion button # and any other components
```

Since `shadcn/ui` itself uses TailwindCSS, `bun create` also adds the necessary TailwindCSS dependencies to your `package.json` and configures `bunfig.toml` to use Bun's TailwindCSS plugin with `Bun.serve()` as described above.

Additionally, we setup the following:

- `tsconfig.json` to alias `"@/*"` to `"src/*"` or `.` (depending on if there is a `src/` directory)
- `components.json` so that shadcn/ui knows its a shadcn/ui project
- `styles/globals.css` file that configures Tailwind v4 in the way that shadcn/ui expects
- `${component}.build.ts` file that builds the component for production with `bun-plugin-tailwind` configured

`bun create ./MyComponent.jsx` is one of the easiest ways to run code generated from LLMs like [Claude](https://claude.ai) or ChatGPT locally.

## From `npm`

```sh terminal icon="terminal"
bun create <template> [<destination>]
```

Assuming you don't have a [local template](#from-a-local-template) with the same name, this command will download and execute the `create-<template>` package from npm. The following two commands will behave identically:

```sh terminal icon="terminal"
bun create remix
bunx create-remix
```

Refer to the documentation of the associated `create-<template>` package for complete documentation and usage instructions.

## From GitHub

This will download the contents of the GitHub repo to disk.

```bash terminal icon="terminal"
bun create <user>/<repo>
bun create github.com/<user>/<repo>
```

Optionally specify a name for the destination folder. If no destination is specified, the repo name will be used.

```bash terminal icon="terminal"
bun create <user>/<repo> mydir
bun create github.com/<user>/<repo> mydir
```

Bun will perform the following steps:

- Download the template
- Copy all template files into the destination folder
- Install dependencies with `bun install`.
- Initialize a fresh Git repo. Opt out with the `--no-git` flag.
- Run the template's configured `start` script, if defined.

<Note>By default Bun will _not overwrite_ any existing files. Use the `--force` flag to overwrite existing files.</Note>

## From a local template

<Warning>
  Unlike remote templates, running `bun create` with a local template will delete the entire destination folder if it
  already exists! Be careful.
</Warning>

Bun's templater can be extended to support custom templates defined on your local file system. These templates should live in one of the following directories:

- `$HOME/.bun-create/<name>`: global templates
- `<project root>/.bun-create/<name>`: project-specific templates

<Note>You can customize the global template path by setting the `BUN_CREATE_DIR` environment variable.</Note>

To create a local template, navigate to `$HOME/.bun-create` and create a new directory with the desired name of your template.

```bash
cd $HOME/.bun-create
mkdir foo
cd foo
```

Then, create a `package.json` file in that directory with the following contents:

```json package.json icon="file-json"
{
  "name": "foo"
}
```

You can run `bun create foo` elsewhere on your file system to verify that Bun is correctly finding your local template.

#### Setup logic

You can specify pre- and post-install setup scripts in the `"bun-create"` section of your local template's `package.json`.

```json package.json icon="file-json"
{
  "name": "@bun-examples/simplereact",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2"
  },
  "bun-create": {
    "preinstall": "echo 'Installing...'", // a single command
    "postinstall": ["echo 'Done!'"], // an array of commands
    "start": "bun run echo 'Hello world!'"
  }
}
```

The following fields are supported. Each of these can correspond to a string or array of strings. An array of commands will be executed in order.

| Field         | Description                         |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| `postinstall` | runs after installing dependencies  |
| `preinstall`  | runs before installing dependencies |

After cloning a template, `bun create` will automatically remove the `"bun-create"` section from `package.json` before writing it to the destination folder.

## Reference

### CLI flags

| Flag           | Description                            |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| `--force`      | Overwrite existing files               |
| `--no-install` | Skip installing `node_modules` & tasks |
| `--no-git`     | Don't initialize a git repository      |
| `--open`       | Start & open in-browser after finish   |

### Environment variables

| Name                                      | Description                                                                                                                                          |
| ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `GITHUB_API_DOMAIN`                       | If you're using a GitHub enterprise or a proxy, you can customize the GitHub domain Bun pings for downloads                                          |
| `GITHUB_TOKEN` (or `GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN`) | This lets `bun create` work with private repositories or if you get rate-limited. `GITHUB_TOKEN` is chosen over `GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN` if both exist. |

<Accordion title={<span>How <code>bun create</code> works</span>}>

When you run `bun create ${template} ${destination}`, here’s what happens:

IF remote template

1. GET `registry.npmjs.org/@bun-examples/${template}/latest` and parse it
2. GET `registry.npmjs.org/@bun-examples/${template}/-/${template}-${latestVersion}.tgz`
3. Decompress & extract `${template}-${latestVersion}.tgz` into `${destination}`
   - If there are files that would overwrite, warn and exit unless `--force` is passed

IF GitHub repo

1. Download the tarball from GitHub’s API
2. Decompress & extract into `${destination}`
   - If there are files that would overwrite, warn and exit unless `--force` is passed

ELSE IF local template

1. Open local template folder
2. Delete destination directory recursively
3. Copy files recursively using the fastest system calls available (on macOS `fcopyfile` and Linux, `copy_file_range`). Do not copy or traverse into `node_modules` folder if exists (this alone makes it faster than `cp`)

4. Parse the `package.json` (again!), update `name` to be `${basename(destination)}`, remove the `bun-create` section from the `package.json` and save the updated `package.json` to disk.
   - IF Next.js is detected, add `bun-framework-next` to the list of dependencies
   - IF Create React App is detected, add the entry point in `/src/index.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}` to `public/index.html`
   - IF Relay is detected, add `bun-macro-relay` so that Relay works
5. Auto-detect the npm client, preferring `pnpm`, `yarn` (v1), and lastly `npm`
6. Run any tasks defined in `"bun-create": { "preinstall" }` with the npm client
7. Run `${npmClient} install` unless `--no-install` is passed OR no dependencies are in package.json
8. Run any tasks defined in `"bun-create": { "postinstall" }` with the npm client
9. Run `git init; git add -A .; git commit -am "Initial Commit";`
   - Rename `gitignore` to `.gitignore`. NPM automatically removes `.gitignore` files from appearing in packages.
   - If there are dependencies, this runs in a separate thread concurrently while node_modules are being installed
   - Using libgit2 if available was tested and performed 3x slower in microbenchmarks

</Accordion>