scaffoldo — Next.js 15 SaaS starter CLI

One-prompt SaaS scaffolder. Generate a production-ready Next.js 15 + Clerk + Supabase + Stripe + Resend + PostHog + Sentry Turborepo from an interview — deployable in minutes.

scaffoldo is an open-source SaaS boilerplate generator for indie hackers and small teams. It turns the question "what do I actually need to launch a SaaS?" into a single command: it interviews you about your idea, then bootstraps a production-grade Next.js 15 monorepo (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind v4, shadcn/ui, Prisma, Turborepo, pnpm) with auth, payments, email, analytics, and observability already wired together.

Also known as: Next.js SaaS starter · Clerk + Stripe boilerplate · Supabase Next.js template · Turborepo SaaS kit · indie-hacker scaffold · create-saas-app alternative.

Quick start

# Interactive — asks ~10 questions, scaffolds in ~5 seconds
npx scaffoldo init

# Non-interactive — drive from a JSON file (used by the Claude skill)
npx scaffoldo init --answers-file answers.json

# (Optional) Install the Claude skill so /scaffold-saas works in any project
npx scaffoldo install-skill              # → ~/.claude/skills/scaffold-saas
npx scaffoldo install-skill --target .   # → ./.claude/skills/scaffold-saas

What you get

A monorepo at <targetDir>/ with:

apps/web                 # Next.js 15 (App Router) — landing, dashboard, auth, settings
packages/auth            # Clerk helpers
packages/db              # Prisma + Supabase Postgres
packages/payments        # Stripe checkout, customer portal, webhooks
packages/email           # Resend transactional email
packages/analytics       # PostHog
packages/observability   # Sentry + pino logger
packages/cache           # Upstash Redis + ratelimit
packages/ai              # Pinecone vector search
packages/i18n            # next-intl (EN-only catalog by default)
packages/ui              # shadcn/ui + Tailwind v4
packages/core            # shared types + AppError hierarchy
packages/config          # eslint / tsconfig / tailwind presets
docs/setup.md            # how to sign up for each service and where keys go
docs/checklist.md        # the 15-feature launch checklist, scoped to your project
.env.example             # every env var the template references

.env.example lists every required key. docs/setup.md walks you through each service's signup. scaffoldo never touches real secrets — you paste them yourself.

Two front doors

• CLI — npx scaffoldo init. Primary entry point. Interactive prompts.
• Claude skill — invoke /scaffold-saas inside Claude Code. The skill conducts the interview through the chat, then shells out to the CLI. Same engine, same template, same output.

Installing the Claude skill

The skill ships inside the npm tarball but Claude Code only discovers skills under ~/.claude/skills/ (user-global) or <project>/.claude/skills/ (project-local). One command copies it where Claude expects:

# User-global — /scaffold-saas works in any project on this machine
npx scaffoldo install-skill

# Project-local — /scaffold-saas works only in the current directory
npx scaffoldo install-skill --target .

# Re-install over an existing copy
npx scaffoldo install-skill --force

You only need to do this once per machine (or once per project if you prefer the project-local install). After that, open Claude Code and type /scaffold-saas.

The 15-item launch list

scaffoldo bakes in everything from the launch checklist:

1. Auth · 2. Database · 3. Payments · 4. Security · 5. Frontend · 6. Backend · 7. Notifications · 8. Analytics · 9. Error handling · 10. Logging · 11. File storage · 12. Settings · 13. Onboarding · 14. Performance · 15. Landing page

Each item is wired to a real file in the template. See docs/checklist.md for the mapping and docs/adr/ for the architectural decisions behind it.

The stack

Built around the cheapest credible stack to launch a real product (~$20/mo):

• Hosting: Vercel (free) — docs/stack/vercel.md
• Auth: Clerk (free tier) — docs/stack/clerk.md
• DB: Supabase Postgres (free) — docs/stack/supabase.md
• Payments: Stripe (2.9% per txn) — docs/stack/stripe.md
• Email: Resend (free) — docs/stack/resend.md
• Analytics: PostHog (free) — docs/stack/posthog.md
• Errors: Sentry (free) — docs/stack/sentry.md
• Cache/ratelimit: Upstash Redis (free) — docs/stack/upstash.md
• Vector search: Pinecone (free) — docs/stack/pinecone.md
• Domain + DNS: Namecheap + Cloudflare — docs/stack/namecheap.md, docs/stack/cloudflare.md
• VCS + CI: GitHub (free) — docs/stack/github.md
• Code: Claude Code — docs/stack/claude.md

Documentation

• docs/playbook.md — full walkthrough from npx scaffoldo init to first deploy
• docs/checklist.md — the 15-feature launch checklist
• docs/stack/ — one page per service (what it does, why chosen, env vars, alternatives)
• docs/adr/ — architecture decision records

Develop scaffoldo itself

pnpm install
pnpm build       # bundles src/ → dist/ via tsup
pnpm typecheck
pnpm lint
pnpm smoke       # scaffolds into a tmp dir and verifies the output

Releases

Releases are automated via release-please and Conventional Commits.

Flow:

1. Merge PRs into main with Conventional Commit titles (feat:, fix:, …).
2. release-please watches main and keeps an open Release PR that previews the next version + CHANGELOG.md diff.
3. Merging the Release PR creates a vX.Y.Z git tag.
4. The tag triggers .github/workflows/release.yml which builds, smoke-tests, and publishes to npm with provenance via Trusted Publishing.

You don't bump versions by hand. Don't run npm version. Don't push tags manually.

Commit message convention

The repo follows Conventional Commits 1.0. The commit type decides the version bump:

Format:

<type>(<optional-scope>): <short summary>

<optional body explaining *why*, not *what*>

<optional footers, e.g. BREAKING CHANGE: …>

Examples:

feat(cli): add --dry-run flag to skip writes
fix(template): correct Stripe webhook signature header name
docs: clarify Trusted Publishing setup in release section
refactor(skill): extract questions list into JSON
feat!: rename `init` command to `create`

BREAKING CHANGE: `scaffoldo init` is now `scaffoldo create`. Existing
scripts must be updated.

Scopes are optional but useful: cli, template, skill, docs, ci. Keep summaries imperative ("add", "fix", "remove") and under ~70 chars.

Pre-1.0 note: while the package is in 0.x, breaking changes (feat!: / BREAKING CHANGE:) bump the minor instead of the major — the SemVer "0.x is unstable" convention. feat: still bumps minor, fix: still bumps patch. The first 1.0.0 is cut deliberately when the API is declared stable.

License

MIT