I built a CLI tool to stop copy-pasting my backend boilerplate

Source: Dev.to

The problem

Every time I started a new Node.js project I was doing the same things:

• Create src/db/db.js
• Create src/app.js
• Set up Express, CORS, dotenv
• Copy utility files such as asyncHandler, ApiError, ApiResponse

Repeating these steps was tedious and error‑prone.

The solution: templr‑js

I created a tiny CLI tool called templr‑js that lets you save a project skeleton once and reuse it instantly.

Installation

npm install -g templr-js

Saving a template

templr save mybackend

This command stores the current directory’s structure (excluding node_modules and .git) as a template named mybackend on your local machine.

Using a template

templr use mybackend

The saved skeleton is copied into the current directory, giving you a ready‑to‑go backend setup without any cloud services or extra configuration files.

Key characteristics

• Zero dependencies – built with pure Node.js (fs, path, os).
• Local storage only – templates are kept on your machine; nothing is uploaded.
• No unwanted files – node_modules and .git directories are never copied.

Links

• npm package:
• GitHub repository: