Create TypeScript Fast

Create React App but for creating TypeScript-based packages to be published to the npm registry.

npm create ts-fast@latest

Supported templates:

• Universal utility: Platform-agnostic utilities intended to run on both server and client, e.g. axios, lodash, clsx, zod
• Command line utility: Runs in the terminal, e.g. eslint, vite, jest
• React hooks: Custom React hooks, e.g. react-use, usehooks-ts

Features

Contains just enough features to help you author and publish TypeScript-based npm packages in under 15 minutes. Features include:

• Lean and mean: Zero dependencies, minimal devDependencies
  • TypeScript: Modern, de facto flavor of JavaScript
  • Vitest: Next generation testing framework with out-of-the-box TypeScript support. Easily replace this with Jest should you wish to
  • tsup: Bundles your TypeScript code, powered by esbuild
• Unopinionated: Includes only the necessary dependencies to get you started
• Types generation: Type declaration files are automatically generated
• Continuous integration: Test, typecheck, and build on every commit / pull request. Uses GitHub actions

Where's pnpm, ESLint, Prettier, and <trendy library>?

The project is unopinionated about the following:

• Alternative package managers, e.g. pnpm, Yarn
• Linting, e.g. ESLint, Biome, oxlint
• Formatting, e.g Prettier, Biome
• Alternative runtimes e.g. Bun, Deno

Why? Because no matter the choice, someone will have a different opinion and want to use something else, so we rather leave it to you. Moreover, these tools can be easily added yourself.

If/when one of them becomes the standard (e.g. TypeScript), we can then include them as a default.

Getting started

Run the scaffolding command, use the scaffolded project as a starting point and customize it to your liking.

Start by running the appropriate command and answering a few questions:

npm

npm create ts-fast@latest

Yarn

yarn create ts-fast

pnpm

pnpm create ts-fast@latest

bun

bun create ts-fast@latest

Scaffolded project structure

Scaffolded projects have these base files:

├── .github/workflows/ci.yml
├── dist
├── src
│   ├── __tests__
│   └── index.ts
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── tsconfig.json
├── tsup.config.ts
└── vitest.config.ts

Next steps

1. Implement your library within src. Add tests if you take pride in being a developer
2. Modify package.json – update name, version, author and any other relevant fields
3. Update README.md
4. npm run publish. You will have to login to npm if you aren't already logged in
5. Profit!

Roadmap

• Scaffolding command similar to create-vite and create-react-app
• Multiple output formats (esm, cjs)
• Choose between tools (Jest vs Vitest)

Credits and inspiration

• create-vite
• create-t3-app
• tsup
• microbundle
• tsdx