Servest Guide

Overview

Servest is a modern backend project scaffolding and addon generator, inspired by create-vite and shadcn/ui, but built entirely for backend frameworks. It helps you quickly create structured backend starter projects and extend them with ready-to-use features.

Servest is framework- and runtime-agnostic — currently supporting Express, with Fastify, NestJS, Django, Laravel, and more coming soon.

It consists of two main parts:

create-servest — The CLI tool used to scaffold new backend projects instantly.
servest (addons) — A flexible extension system for generating modules, middleware, and integrations (authentication, databases, utilities) inside existing projects.

You can think of Servest as:

create-vite + shadcn, but for backend frameworks.

Together, they provide a smooth developer experience, eliminating configuration hassles and repetitive setup, and can significantly speed up backend project development using ready-to-use templates and addons — or both combined.

Runtime Compatibility

Servest currently runs on Node.js 18+ (tested on 20.x and 22.x).
Some addons may require a higher Node version depending on their dependencies.

💡 Ensure your Node version supports ES modules and import.meta syntax.

Future Runtime Support

Servest will support additional runtimes beyond Node.js.
For these, prebuilt runtime packages (APKs) will be provided, allowing projects to run seamlessly across environments.

This approach ensures Servest remains framework- and runtime-agnostic, letting you combine templates and addons in any supported runtime.

Try Servest Online

You can try Servest templates online on StackBlitz — no local setup required. Each template runs a backend environment pre-configured with Servest’s project structure and dependencies.

You can open a template directly using the following links:

Template	Runtime	Open
express-basic-js	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-basic-ts	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-mvc-cjs	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-mvc-mjs	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-mvc-ts	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-modular-cjs	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-modular-mjs	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz
express-modular-ts	Node.js	Open with StackBlitz

How Servest Works

Servest lets you scaffold backend projects and extend them instantly with built-in addons.

Scaffolding your first Servest project

Use the CLI tool to scaffold backend project templates and then follow the prompts:

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visit the npm package or check the GitHub repository

Non-interactive scaffolding

You can directly specify the project name and template via CLI options:

npm 7+, extra double-dash is needed:

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See create-servest templates for more details on each supported template: express-basic-js, express-basic-ts, express-mvc-cjs, express-mvc-esm, express-mvc-ts, express-modular-cjs, express-modular-esm, express-modular-ts.

💡 Tip: Use Dot (.) as the project name to scaffold in the current directory.

Scaffolding with addons

You can automatically include additional utilities during scaffolding using the -a or --addons flag:

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This will scaffold the express-mvc-ts project and install the required npm packages to enhance your development workflow.

💡 Tip: If any addon fails, the remaining ones will still be applied. You can re-run the failed addons manually later.

To learn more about servest addons, visit the npm package or check the GitHub repository

Community Templates

Servest lets you quickly start backend projects using ready-made templates.
You’re not limited to the official ones — you can also use community-maintained templates from GitHub or elsewhere.

To use a community template from GitHub:

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💡 Some repositories use main instead of master as their default branch. In that case, add #main to the repo name:

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Future Plan

Servest aims to become the create-vite for backend development — a unified scaffolding and addon ecosystem across all major backend frameworks and runtimes.

Upcoming goals:

Add support for NestJS, Fastify, Django, and Laravel.
Build an official addon library for common backend utilities

To learn more about the roadmap and vision Our Journey

Contributing to Servest

Servest is open-source and welcomes contributors!

You can explore the source code and contribute via:

GitHub: dev-rashedin/servest
NPM: create-servest • servest

If you’d like to contribute templates, addons, fix bugs, or improve the docs,
check out the Contributors Guide.

Released under the MIT License