Create a project

npx create-nodepress-app <project-name> creates a ready-to-run NodePress project from the latest release. This page lists what the command does and what it writes. For the full first-run walkthrough (database, migrations, admin account), see Installation.

npx create-nodepress-app my-site
npx create-nodepress-app my-site --docker --sentry

Requirements

Node.js 18 or newer and Git must be on your PATH. The command stops if Git is missing. Docker is only needed to run the stack a --docker project describes, and the command only warns if it can’t find it.

Options

Option	What it does
--docker	Keeps the Docker setup: docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.prod.yml, nginx/, monitoring/, a root .env for Compose and the docker:* scripts. Without it, those files are removed.
--sentry	Keeps Sentry error tracking (@sentry/nestjs, @sentry/profiling-node, @sentry/nextjs, about 100 MB). Off by default.
--no-install	Skips npm install. Run it yourself before starting the project.

Options can be combined and placed before or after the name.

The project name becomes the folder name. Characters other than letters, digits, - and _ are replaced with -, and the name is lowercased, so My Site becomes my-site. The command stops if the folder already exists.

What it does

1. Finds the newest release tag (vX.Y.Z, pre-releases ignored) and clones it. If the repository has no release tags, it clones main and warns that upgrade will need --from later.
2. Replaces the git history with a fresh repository and adds NodePress as a remote named nodepress, which upgrade fetches from.
3. Removes files that are only for developing NodePress: .claude, CLAUDE.md, cli/, specs/, docs/, CHANGELOG.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, .githooks, .github, .vercelignore, backend/test, the release checks in scripts/, the test scripts in backend/scripts/ and the root package-lock.json. The backup, database-check and password-reset scripts stay.
4. Without --docker, removes docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.prod.yml, nginx/, monitoring/ and the scripts they mount (scripts/docker-secrets-init.sh, scripts/backup.sh, scripts/backup-crontab).
5. Without --sentry, removes the Sentry config files and packages and replaces the admin’s error reporter with a no-op, so the project builds without the SDK.
6. Writes nodepress.json, backend/.env, frontend/.env.local, a root package.json and, with --docker, a root .env.
7. Runs npm install --no-audit --no-fund in the project root. npm workspaces install the backend and the admin in one go.
8. Commits everything as Create NodePress project (vX.Y.Z). The generated .env files and node_modules are git-ignored.

First commit

The commit fails if git has no user.name / user.email. The command warns and carries on. Commit the project yourself before your first upgrade, which needs a clean working tree.

Generated files

backend/.env

backend/.env

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:5432/YOUR_NODEPRESS_DATABASE"
DIRECT_URL="postgresql://postgres:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:5432/YOUR_NODEPRESS_DATABASE"
PORT="3000"
JWT_SECRET="<96 random hex characters>"
CORS_ORIGIN="http://localhost:5173"
APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"
SITE_URL="http://localhost:5173"
# SMTP_HOST=
SMTP_PORT="587"
SMTP_SECURE="false"
# SMTP_USER=
# SMTP_PASS=
# SMTP_FROM=

• Without --docker, the database URLs hold placeholders: replace YOUR_PASSWORD and YOUR_NODEPRESS_DATABASE with your PostgreSQL password and a database name.
• With --docker, they already point at the Compose database: postgresql://postgres:<random password>@localhost:5432/nodepress.
• With --sentry, a commented # SENTRY_DSN= line is added.

Every other setting has a default. See Environment variables.

frontend/.env.local

frontend/.env.local

BACKEND_URL="http://localhost:3000"

With --sentry, a commented # NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN= line is added.

.env (with --docker only)

The Compose files read this one. DB_PASSWORD and JWT_SECRET match the values in backend/.env.

.env

DB_PASSWORD="<random>"
JWT_SECRET="<same as backend/.env>"
CORS_ORIGIN="http://localhost"
APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"
SITE_URL="http://localhost"

See Docker for running the stack.

package.json

A root package.json with backend and frontend as npm workspaces and these scripts:

Script	Runs
postinstall	prisma generate in backend/
dev	The backend and the admin together (with concurrently)
dev:backend / dev:frontend	One of them
build	Production build of the backend, then the admin
migrate	prisma migrate dev
studio	Prisma Studio
install:all	npm install
docker:dev / docker:prod / docker:down	docker-compose up -d, the production compose file with --build, docker-compose down (only with --docker)

nodepress.json

Records the release the project is on and the paths upgrade must leave alone. Commit it and don’t edit it by hand.

nodepress.json

{
  "version": "1.7.0",
  "ref": "v1.7.0",
  "repository": "https://github.com/buildwithkode/nodepress.git",
  "skip": ["CLAUDE.md", "cli", "docs", "package.json", "…"]
}

upgrade updates version and ref after each run. See Upgrade.

Next steps

Set the database URL, then create the tables and start the project:

cd my-site
npm run migrate
npm run dev

The admin opens at http://localhost:5173 and asks you to create the first account. Installation covers hosted databases and Docker in detail.