01 NodeJS Starter Template

✨ The Magically Basic (But Everything You Could Possibly Need) NodeJS Starter Template

Welcome to the NodeJS Starter Template, a streamlined boilerplate designed for backend projects—focused on teaching best practices without unnecessary extras. It's here to help you build a solid NodeJS project from the ground up—think ESM support, linting, testing, and automation made simple.

🦄 If you're curious about where I'm going with this or if you want to leave ideas, the best way to reach me concerning this repo is through a comment on my Dev.to blog post.

🧠💡 Assumptions & Unwritten Rules

Before you dive in, here are a few things I’m assuming about you:

1. You’re already comfortable with git basics - commits, branches, pushes, remotes, etc. If you see a command you don’t recognize, just look it up!
2. You know JavaScript or at least one scripting language (even Java counts - just be comfortable with code basics).
3. You’ve built projects or worked with packages and dependencies before - you get why versioning matters.
4. You know what Assisted AI is (like GitHub Copilot) - even if you’ve never used it before.
5. You get that this isn’t a teach-everything guide - it covers only what’s in this project (with a few extras). You’ll need to do some research on your own.

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🚀 What's Included So Far

• CommitLint – Enforces conventional commit messages to maintain a clean changelog and consistent versioning.
• GitHub Copilot prompt – A .github/prompts/generate-commit-message.prompt.md file is included to help you with this, although its current behavior can be improved.
• Documentation – A wiki/ folder loaded with everything you need to get started, including this Home.md file.
  • The Home.md file serves as your starting point for all things documentation.
  • Lot's more where that came from! The wiki will continue to grow with more tips, tricks, and tools as the project evolves.

🦄 This project is actively evolving! Check back often for fresh updates, new tips, and more features as they land.

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🧭 What to Expect Next

This document will expand as the template evolves:

• Setup & usage instructions
• Tips for customizing the boilerplate
• In-depth tool explanations (starting with CommitLint, then the Copilot prompt)
• Copy-ready examples

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🧩 How to Get Started

Link the Wiki as a Git Submodule

1. Click the "Use this template" button at the top of this repo’s GitHub page.

2. Fill out your new project’s details (name, description, visibility).

3. Click "Create repository from template".

4. Open your newly created repo and clone it to your machine:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/<your-new-repo>.git

5. Make sure you have Volta configured and run npm install.

6. Initialize the submodule to get the latest wiki docs:

   git submodule update --init --recursive

7. Browse the wiki/ folder right in your repo—this Home.md file is your starting point.

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🪄 Pick Your Tools

You can use this template with any tools you prefer, but here are some recommendations:

• Editor: Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a great choice with built-in git support and extensions for linting and testing.
  • Try out Insiders builds for the latest GitHub Copilot features!
• GitHub Copilot: If you have access, it’s a game-changer for writing code faster and with fewer errors.
  • Install the GitHub Copilot extension and GitHub Copilot Chat in VSCode to get started.
• Volta: Use Volta to manage your Node.js versions and dependencies seamlessly.
• Pick Your Dependencies Right now there's not a lot, but eventually this will include a curated list of recommended packages for common tasks.
  • Go through the README.md file in the root of the repo to see what’s included and how to use them.
  • Delete any dependencies you don’t need now to keep your project lean.

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🧩 Run NPM Install

After cloning the repo, run npm install to set up your project dependencies. This will install everything you need to get started.

npm install

Once installed, test that commitlint executes correctly by running the following command:

npm run commitlint:last