esdev create

esdev create my-app
cd my-app
npm install        # or bun, pnpm, yarn
npm run dev

What you get is a project with its esdev.json written, its entry named by the script tag in its index.html, and a deploy line that is already narrow:

esrun --allow-read=./dist --allow-env=PORT --allow-listen=8080 \
      --allow-signals=SIGTERM,SIGINT dist/server.js

Templates

esdev create --list
esdev create my-app --template=react

The react template is a route table with loaders, nested layouts, dynamic segments and error boundaries, served by a file you own: a Content-Security-Policy with a per-response nonce, a SIGTERM that drains before it exits, immutable caching on hashed assets, and one JSON log line per request.

They are baked into the binary, so create works offline and always writes a project the esdev that wrote it can build. Nothing is downloaded.

It asks, or it writes files and stops

On a terminal it asks which template and whether to install:

Which template?
  1) api      A JSON API — routing, validation, error handling. No dependencies
  2) lib      A publishable TypeScript package — module tree, .d.ts
  3) react    React + react-router — server-rendered, hydrated (default)
  4) vanilla  TypeScript and the DOM — no framework
>

Away from one — a pipe, a CI job, anything with CI set — it takes the defaults and says nothing. A prompt in a script is a script that hangs.

Every question has a flag, so nothing is only reachable by answering one:

esdev create my-app --template=api --install=bun
esdev create my-app --yes            # defaults, no questions
esdev create my-app --no-install

Only package managers this machine actually has are offered. Unattended it installs nothing: there is no lockfile yet to say which one this project uses, and guessing wrong leaves the wrong one behind — which is a reason not to guess, not a reason not to ask.

It still does no git init.

It never overwrites

A directory that already holds something is refused. --force writes among what is there and still leaves every existing file alone — it means "write here too", never "write over".

error: my-app is not empty.

Options