Template-NEXT
A command-line tool that scaffolds clean, minimal Next.js projects: opinionated defaults, no bloat, and a working app in seconds.
- Role
- Personal project
- Year
- 2025
- Type
- CLI & Developer Tooling
Overview
Template-NEXT is a CLI that generates a production-ready Next.js project in one command. It bakes in the choices I make on every build (TypeScript, sensible folder structure, linting, and a component layer) so the first commit is real work, not configuration.
Rather than cloning a repo and inheriting its git history and stale dependencies, the CLI scaffolds a fresh project with everything already configured. I use it across my own work, so every project I start shares the same sensible defaults.
The problem
Every new project starts the same way: wire up TypeScript, pick a styling approach, set up linting and formatting, drop in a few base components, and untangle the defaults you never wanted. It's an hour of repetitive setup before a single feature exists, and it quietly drifts out of sync from project to project.
Approach
Rather than a sprawling boilerplate, I built an opinionated minimum. The CLI wraps create-next-app, then layers on a pinned, known-good setup: a fixed shadcn/ui preset, next-themes dark mode, Prettier and editor settings, resolved in a single install pass. Versions are pinned for reproducible builds, with a --latest opt-out.
Key features
- Scaffolds Next.js 16 with the App Router, a src directory, and Turbopack.
- A pre-configured shadcn/ui preset with next-themes dark mode.
- Interactive prompts, or fully non-interactive with
--yes, and your choice of package manager. - Selectable components and skip flags (
--no-themes,--no-prettier,--skip-git,--skip-install). - Pinned versions by default, with
--latestwhen you want the newest.
Tech stack
The CLI itself is a small ESM Node tool built with Commander, Clack prompts, Chalk and Ora, with its own test suite. What it generates is the modern Next.js stack I reach for on every project.
- Node CLI
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
- Shadcn/ui
Getting started
One command scaffolds the whole project. Run it, answer the prompts, and start building.
$ npx @edward-hyde/template-nextLatest v0.5.2 · published Oct 2026
Outcome
Template-NEXT became my default starting point and the foundation for several shipped projects. It’s published on npm and openly documented with a versioned changelog: read the getting-started guide (opens in a new tab), browse the latest releases on the blog (opens in a new tab), or see the code on GitHub (opens in a new tab).