Scaffolding

Create a new Nodalite project in seconds with the interactive scaffolding CLI.

Quick start

npm create nodalite
# or
npx nodalite create
# or
npx create-nodalite

Follow the prompts to configure your project — a ready-to-run project is generated with all dependencies installed.

Interactive prompts

Purpose

Choose the type of project you want to build:

Option	Runtime	Generated files
API server	Node.js / Bun / Deno	src/app.ts, src/server.ts, tsconfig.json
Telegram bot	Node.js	src/main.ts, src/telegram-bot.ts, tsconfig.json
Lambda	AWS Lambda	src/app.ts, src/handler.ts, tsconfig.json
Edge	Cloudflare Workers	src/index.ts, wrangler.toml config

Additional options

After selecting the purpose, the CLI asks feature-specific questions:

ML model inference (API only) — adds an ONNX-ready sentiment analysis endpoint powered by @nodalite/workers WorkerPool. The generated worker file (src/sentiment-worker.ts) runs CPU-bound inference on a dedicated thread so it never blocks the request event loop.

Security middleware (API and Lambda) — adds cors, securityHeaders, rateLimit, jwtAuth, logger, and bodyLimit middleware. Auth routes (/auth/signup, /auth/login) and a JWT-protected /api/* group are generated with working validation via Zod.

Job scheduler (API only) — adds a @nodalite/scheduler Scheduler instance with a sample recurring task and graceful shutdown wiring.

Structure

Choose how your source code is organized:

Option	Description
Flat (default)	All routes in a single src/app.ts file
Modular	Routes split into src/routes/ with auto-discovery

The modular structure automatically discovers route files from the routes/ directory using discover(). Subdirectories become route groups, and _prefix.ts files define prefixes for their directory.

Project name

If not provided as a CLI argument, the CLI prompts for a project name and creates a directory with that name in the current working directory.

Generated project structure

The output mirrors the examples in the repository, customised to your choices. Here is what a full-featured API project with all options enabled looks like:

Flat structure (default)

my-api/
├── src/
│   ├── app.ts                # Routes, middleware, ML worker pool
│   ├── server.ts             # HTTP server + graceful shutdown
│   └── sentiment-worker.ts   # ML inference worker thread
├── package.json              # Dependencies pinned to compatible versions
└── tsconfig.json             # Strict TypeScript config

Modular structure

my-api/
├── src/
│   ├── app.ts                # Entry point with middleware + discover()
│   ├── server.ts             # HTTP server + graceful shutdown
│   └── routes/
│       ├── _prefix.ts        # Optional: defines "/api" prefix
│       ├── health.ts         # GET /health
│       ├── users.ts          # GET/POST /users
│       └── posts/
│           ├── _prefix.ts    # defines "/posts" prefix
│           ├── index.ts      # GET /posts
│           └── comments.ts   # GET /posts/comments
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Installing dependencies

After scaffolding, the CLI runs npm install automatically. If it fails (offline, custom registry, etc.), run it manually:

cd my-project
npm install

What's next?

• Quick Start — learn the framework basics
• Core Concepts — how the request pipeline works
• Examples — real-world usage patterns