setup-mern/bin/setup-mern.js

A CLI tool to generate a MERN backend boilerplate in seconds!

#!/usr/bin/env node

import fs from "fs-extra";
import path from "path";
import chalk from "chalk";
import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
import inquirer from "inquirer";
import ora from "ora";

// Get __dirname in ES Modules
const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);

// Paths
const templatesDir = path.join(__dirname, "../templates");
const targetDir = process.argv[2] || "my-new-project";

// Check if target directory already exists
if (fs.existsSync(targetDir)) {
  console.error(chalk.red(`Error: Directory "${targetDir}" already exists.`));
  process.exit(1);
}

// Prompt user to confirm
const questions = [
  {
    type: "confirm",
    name: "proceed",
    message: `Do you want to create a MERN backend boilerplate in "./${targetDir}"?`,
    default: true,
  },
];

inquirer.prompt(questions).then(async (answers) => {
  if (!answers.proceed) {
    console.log(chalk.yellow("Setup canceled."));
    process.exit(0);
  }

  // Start the loader
  const spinner = ora("Creating boilerplate...").start();

  try {
    // Copy templates to target directory
    await fs.copy(templatesDir, targetDir);

    // Update package.json name
    const packageJsonPath = path.join(targetDir, "package.json");
    const packageJson = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(packageJsonPath, "utf-8"));
    packageJson.name = path.basename(targetDir);
    await fs.writeFile(packageJsonPath, JSON.stringify(packageJson, null, 2));

    // Stop the loader and show success message
    spinner.succeed(chalk.green("Boilerplate created successfully!"));
    console.log(chalk.blue(`\nNext steps:`));
    console.log(`1. cd ${targetDir}`);
    console.log(`2. npm install`);
    console.log(`3. npm start (or npm run dev for development)`);
    console.log(chalk.yellow("\nHappy coding! 🚀\n"));
  } catch (err) {
    // Stop the loader and show error message
    spinner.fail(chalk.red("Failed to create boilerplate."));
    console.error(chalk.red(err.message));
    process.exit(1);
  }
});