for nestjs v8, v9 and v10
Let's say you want to create a new NestJS standard application from scratch but taking the full control of your dependencies, scripts and source code. Thus, you don't want to use the usual npx @nestjs/cli new command (which basically bootstraps the typescript starter project) since you wish a bare minimum app.
The goal of this guide is to show you what you're really need in order to start a standard (Express-based HTTP server) NestJS app.
Tools used here
- node.js v16 -- runtime
- npm v9 -- package manager
- npx v9 -- utility to execute NPM packages binaries
- bash shell -- Terminal stuff. We'll use here documents unix feature to write files
Final file structure
As a result we would have this:
.
├── nest-cli.json
├── package.json
├── package-lock.json
├── src
│ ├── app.module.ts
│ └── main.ts
├── tsconfig.build.json
└── tsconfig.json
1 directory, 7 files
$ npm ls --depth=0
my-nestjs-app@1.0.0 /tmp/my-nestjs-app
├── @nestjs/cli@9.1.5
├── @nestjs/common@9.2.1
├── @nestjs/core@9.2.1
├── @nestjs/platform-express@9.2.1
├── @types/node@18.11.13
├── reflect-metadata@0.1.13
└── typescript@4.9.4
With 3 development dependencies and 4 production dependencies. And only 3 NPM scripts.
1. NPM project setup
## Create the new directory that will holds our app's code
mkdir my-nestjs-app
## Enter on it
cd $_
## Start the NPM project
npm init --yes
2. Install all mandatory dependencies
As a hard/production dependencies, we need:
npm install reflect-metadata @nestjs/common @nestjs/core
## |
## +--> For TS decorators instrospection
## Since we'll use express as the underlying HTTP lib:
npm i @nestjs/platform-express
As a development dependencies, we got:
npm i -D typescript@^4 @types/node @nestjs/cli
You can learn more about NPM dependencies here.
3. Add useful npm-scripts to package.json
To help on bulding and running our app, we can add few useful npm-scripts:
## Remove the 'test' npm-script that was generated by NPM before
npm pkg delete scripts.test
## Change the 'main' entry to the right entry file that we'll have afte building the project
npm pkg set main="dist/src/main"
## Define the 'build' script,
## that will be used to compile our TypeScript code into JavaScript
npm pkg set scripts.build="nest build"
## Define the 'start:dev' script,
## that will be used to build & run the app with the watch mode
npm pkg set scripts.start:dev="nest start --watch"
## Define the 'start:prod' script,
## that will be used to run the compiled code
npm pkg set scripts.start:prod="node ."
The package.json should looks like this:
{
"name": "my-nestjs-app",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "dist/src/main",
"scripts": {
"build": "nest build",
"start:dev": "nest start --watch",
"start:prod": "node ."
},
"dependencies": {
"@nestjs/common": "^9.2.1",
"@nestjs/core": "^9.2.1",
"@nestjs/platform-express": "^9.2.1",
"reflect-metadata": "^0.1.13"
},
"devDependencies": {
"@nestjs/cli": "^9.1.5",
"@types/node": "^18.11.13",
"typescript": "^4.9.4"
}
}
4. Create all required files
## Create the 'src' directory to store source files
mkdir src
## Create the TypeScript configuration file with good defaults
cat <<EOF > tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"module": "commonjs",
"declaration": true,
"removeComments": true,
"emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
"experimentalDecorators": true,
"allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
"target": "ES2021",
"sourceMap": true,
"outDir": "./dist",
"rootDir": "./",
"baseUrl": "./",
"skipLibCheck": true,
"incremental": true
}
}
EOF
## Create the TypeScript config file
## that will be used when building the project with NestJS's CLI
cat <<EOF > tsconfig.build.json
{
"extends": "./tsconfig.json",
"exclude": ["node_modules", "test", "dist", "**/*spec.ts"]
}
EOF
## Create the NestJS CLI config file
## Do note that we don't want to generate spec files while using the 'generate' command
## since we are not using Jest in this tutorial
## Also, Jest isn't mandatory.
## You could use any other testing framework that works with TS decorators
cat <<EOF > nest-cli.json
{
"\$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/nest-cli",
"collection": "@nestjs/schematics",
"monorepo": false,
"sourceRoot": "src",
"entryFile": "main",
"language": "ts",
"generateOptions": {
"spec": false
},
"compilerOptions": {
"tsConfigPath": "./tsconfig.build.json",
"webpack": false,
"deleteOutDir": true,
"assets": [],
"watchAssets": false,
"plugins": []
}
}
EOF
## Create a minimal application root module
npx nest generate module app --flat
## Create a minimal application entrypoint under src/main.ts file
cat <<EOF > src/main.ts
import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';
import type { NestExpressApplication } from '@nestjs/platform-express';
import { AppModule } from './app.module';
async function bootstrap() {
const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(AppModule);
await app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);
}
bootstrap();
EOF
5. Run the app 🎊
## For development
npm run start:dev
## Setup for production
npm run build
rm -rf node_modules
## Install production-only dependencies without changing the lock file
npm ci --omit=dev
## Start the app using it's 'main' entry
node .
Everything in a bash script: https://github.com/micalevisk/create-nest/blob/main/create-nestjs-from-scratch.sh
Top comments (1)
now you can just run:
npm init nest -- <dir>to bootstrap that app