Stanza

Shadcn-style CLI for assembling modular full-stack TS monorepos. Currently ships init, add, remove, list, search against five slots: framework, styling, db, orm, auth. swap + update verbs and additional categories (api, ai, ui, payments, plus add-ons for testing, tooling, deploy, email) are planned — the manifest already reserves the fields they'll need (modules[slot].version, regions). See REGISTRY.md for the module roadmap and TODO.md for active work.

Three things differentiate stanza from other scaffolders:

Post-init stanza add works on existing projects (manifest-driven, peer-aware).
Generated code is vendored verbatim — no @stanza/runtime dep.
Open registry spec — third parties can host their own static JSON.

Layout

apps/cli/ — @stanza/cli, node entrypoint at src/bin.ts (run via tsx in dev, tsdown-built to dist/bin.mjs for publish)
apps/web/ — @stanza/web, TanStack Start visual builder (Vite-native, no Vinxi)
packages/registry/ — shared schema, slot/peer resolver, Zod manifest validator
packages/codemods/ — ts-morph helpers (idempotent + reversible)
packages/create-stanza/ — pnpm create stanza shim
scripts/ — repo-root maintainer helpers (not shipped): registry-build.ts emits static CDN JSON
registry/modules/<slot>-<id>/ — first-party modules: module.ts + templates/ (modules don't ship codemod code; see Architecture rules)

In a generated project, auth, db, and orm modules install into their own internal workspace package at packages/<dir>/ (named @<manifest.name>/<dir>); the app consumes them via workspace:* deps. framework and styling stay app-scoped because they wire the app shell itself. The mapping lives in the canonical SLOTS array — auth → "auth", both db and orm → "db" (they share a single packages/db/ package). The SLOT_PACKAGE_DIR lookup and slotLabel helper are both derived from this array.

Commands

pnpm --filter @stanza/cli dev -- <verb> — run CLI directly via tsx watch ./src/bin.ts; no build step. Or tsx apps/cli/src/bin.ts <verb> for a one-shot run
pnpm --filter @stanza/cli build — build the publishable CLI via tsdown (compiles to ESM JS at apps/cli/dist/, externalizes npm deps, inlines workspace packages). Same for create-stanza
pnpm registry:build — regenerate dist/registry/{index,modules/*}.json. Uses bun for maintainer convenience (the script body is portable; tsx scripts/registry-build.ts works too)
pnpm --filter @stanza/web dev — TanStack Start dev server. prebuild invokes apps/web/scripts/prepare-registry.sh which copies the built dist/registry/ into apps/web/public/registry/. Since dist/registry/ is gitignored, the script builds it first when it's missing (e.g. on Vercel's clean checkout) — preferring bun locally and falling back to pnpm exec tsx on node-only deploy targets. The deployed site ships this directory as static assets, so CLI and web consume the same JSON. public/registry/ is also registered as a Nitro serverAssets dir (vite.config.ts), so its contents are embedded into the server bundle at build time — SSR reads it via useStorage("assets:registry") (not the CDN), which is why it works on Vercel where public/ is absent from the function fs
pnpm lint / pnpm lint:fix — Oxlint across the whole repo (config: .oxlintrc.json)
pnpm fmt / pnpm fmt:check — oxfmt across the whole repo (config: .oxfmtrc.json)
pnpm test / pnpm check-types — fan out to every workspace via turbo
cd apps/web && node_modules/.bin/vite build — generates src/routeTree.gen.ts (required before first typecheck)
E2E smoke: seed $TMPDIR/x with stanza.json + apps/web/package.json, then tsx apps/cli/src/bin.ts add <slot> <module>
pnpm changeset — create a new changeset describing what changed (run after a substantive PR)
pnpm release — build CLI/create-stanza and publish to npm (only runs in CI; locally use pnpm pack to inspect tarballs)

Toolchain invariants

Node-only at runtime. The CLI source uses node APIs and is dev-run via tsx; the published binary is plain ESM JS (#!/usr/bin/env node). The only place bun appears is the shebang on root maintainer scripts (scripts/*.ts) for our own convenience — those scripts don't use any Bun.* APIs and run fine under tsx/node
Build pipeline: tsdown compiles each publishable package to ESM JS in dist/. External npm deps are not bundled (users install them via the normal dep chain); workspace deps are inlined (we don't publish @stanza/registry and @stanza/codemods separately). Transitive runtime deps (ts-morph, zod) MUST be declared as direct dependencies of the publishable package or tsdown will inline them into the bundle
Per-workspace dist/ paths: main/types in the source package.json still point at ./src/ so other workspaces resolve .ts directly during dev. The published tarball overrides via publishConfig to point at ./dist/<x>.mjs/.d.mts
Publishing: only @stanza/cli and create-stanza ship to npm. @stanza/codemods + @stanza/registry are marked private: true (inlined into the CLI bundle by tsdown); @stanza/web is private (deployed as a Vercel site, not an npm package); the registry/modules/* packages are also private (they're registry data, not npm packages). Releases go through Changesets: drop a markdown file via pnpm changeset, push to main → the release workflow opens a "Version Packages" PR; merging that PR triggers the same workflow to run pnpm release (build CLI + create-stanza, then changeset publish to npm). Requires NPM_TOKEN in repo secrets; provenance attestations are emitted via id-token: write + NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE=true
pnpm 10 + node-linker: isolated — each workspace MUST declare @types/node in its own devDeps and set types: ["node"] in tsconfig (auto-discovery doesn't reach into the isolated node_modules/@types)
TypeScript 6 — allowImportingTsExtensions: true + noEmit: true is set in tsconfig.json; the CLI/create-stanza emit JS via tsdown, the registry/codemods packages stay source-only and never emit
tsconfig.json excludes **/templates/** globally — template files target user projects, not this repo
Zod 4: use z.partialRecord(K, V) for finite-key partial records (z.record(z.enum, V) requires exhaustive keys)
TanStack Start: verbatimModuleSyntax: false in apps/web/tsconfig.json (server bundles leak otherwise); tanstackStart() MUST precede react() in vite plugins

Architecture rules

Modules are vendored: their templates land in the user's repo verbatim; no @stanza/runtime dep
Template distribution: scripts/registry-build.ts inlines each template file's contents into the per-module JSON's templates[].content field so HTTP-loaded manifests are self-contained. The runner prefers tpl.content and only reads from registry/modules/<x>/templates/ when it's absent (local dev). New templates need no build wiring — they're picked up automatically
Module logos: drop logo.svg (theme-agnostic) or logo-light.svg + logo-dark.svg (theme pair) in a module's directory. The registry build auto-detects and inlines as mod.logo (string or { light, dark }) — module authors don't declare anything in module.ts. First-party logos come from svgl.app. The web builder renders inline via dangerouslySetInnerHTML
Registry is data; CLI is the runtime: the per-module JSON ships templates (text), deps (strings), env (strings), scripts (strings), logos (SVG markup), and codemod invocations ({ id, args }). It does NOT ship codemod code. The catalog of generic codemods lives in packages/codemods/src/builtins/ and is exposed via the @stanza/codemods/builtins subpath export — each codemod is parameterized by TArgs and reusable across modules (wrap-root-layout serves both Clerk and any future provider-style auth/state library). The catalog is statically imported into the CLI binary at build time, so distribution shape (single binary, pnpm-isolated, npm-hoisted, npx, bun --compile) doesn't matter — implementations always travel with the runtime
Adding a generic codemod: drop <id>.ts under packages/codemods/src/builtins/, default-export a Codemod<TArgs>, and register it in packages/codemods/src/builtins/index.ts. Codemods that bake in module-specific identifiers don't belong — factor them into args
Third-party codemods: deferred. Third-party HTTP-loaded modules can use the existing catalog codemods (pass { id, args } from their manifest) but can't add new ones until we land a proper sandboxed-execution + signing model
apps/web previews are server-rendered: Shiki runs in apps/web/src/server/highlighter.ts (module-singleton, kept warm). The builder loader (createServerFn in apps/web/src/server/builder-state.ts) computes selected files from URL search params, pre-renders Shiki HTML for each, and ships Record<path, { light, dark }> to the client. shiki must NEVER be imported from a client component — verified by vite build followed by grep shiki .output/public/assets/*.js (should return nothing)
Slot taxonomy is currently framework | styling | db | orm | auth. Adding a slot is now a two-line edit: append the id to KNOWN_SLOTS (the as const tuple Zod needs for literal inference) and append a Slot entry to SLOTS with { id, label, description, packageDir }. Decide upfront whether the new slot extracts (data layer, observability) or wires the app shell (router, global CSS) and set packageDir accordingly
Slots vs. add-ons: the 5 slots are one-choice, peer-constraint-bearing. Add-ons are multi-choice, no outbound peer constraints (testing, tooling, deploy, email, monorepo) — several coexist in a category. The add-on schema is live (landed with the testing modules): a Module is a discriminated union on kind ("slot" default, carrying slot; or "addon", carrying category); isAddon() narrows it and moduleGroup() returns the slot-or-category key. Add-on categories live in KNOWN_ADDONS/ADDON_CATEGORIES (parallel to KNOWN_SLOTS/SLOTS), deliberately disjoint from KNOWN_SLOTS so the resolver — which iterates KNOWN_SLOTS for peer checks and activePeerIds — never lets add-ons participate in others' dispatch. An add-on can declare a one-way peers (e.g. { framework: [...] }) and framework-varying adapters; resolveAdapter handles it unchanged. The manifest stores them in addons: Partial<Record<AddonCategoryId, StanzaAddonRecord[]>> (.default({}) keeps old stanza.json valid). Region ownership keys on module.id, so two add-ons writing the same file at disjoint dot-paths (vitest scripts.test vs playwright scripts.test:e2e) never conflict. Future single-choice categories (api, ai, ui, payments) are still slots, added via KNOWN_SLOTS/SLOTS
Adapter keys encode peer choices (e.g., next+drizzle); the resolver picks the most specific match
Module-level install fields: dependencies, devDependencies, env, scripts, and consumesPackages are declared at the module level when shared across adapters. Adapter-level fields override per-key (env merges by name). This avoids re-declaring the same dependencies and env block in every adapter of a multi-framework module (cf. Better Auth — 6 adapters, but better-auth dep and the two env vars are declared once)
Slot-package extraction: auth/db/orm modules install into packages/<dir>/ workspace packages (named @<manifest.name>/<dir>); templates scope: "package", deps/devDeps/scripts route there, and the app gets a workspace:* dep wired by the runner. framework/styling stay app-scoped (their packageDir entry is null). The bootstrap files (the package's package.json + tsconfig.json and the host app's workspace dep) are system-owned — not tracked in regions. stanza remove's sweep deletes them when no claims remain under packages/<dir>/
Generated projects don't share a tsconfig base: every apps/*/tsconfig.json and packages/*/tsconfig.json is self-contained. The framework module ships the app's tsconfig; the runner's ensureSlotPackage writes a matching self-contained config when bootstrapping a slot package. tsconfig.json lives in the stanza repo only; do not emit it in generated trees
Cross-package wiring: when a module's source code imports from another internal package (e.g. better-auth's auth.ts reads db from the orm package), declare consumesPackages: ["db"] at the module level. The runner adds @<project>/db: workspace:* to this module's own package. Module-level (not adapter-level) because the source code is shared infrastructure — adapters vary in templates/codemods, not in what they import. Templates can reference other packages via {{<dir>PackageName}} substitution (e.g. {{dbPackageName}} → @my-app/db) — substitution runs over both template bodies (when template: true) and codemod-invocation args string values
Region ownership in stanza.json is the source of truth for stanza remove. Two modules claiming the same region is a hard error (RegionConflictError). Note: regions are not yet sufficient for swap — that verb additionally needs old-adapter-region → new-adapter-region mapping; design pending
Codemod catalog ids are part of the public contract: once stanza is published, renaming a builtin codemod id breaks every third-party manifest that references it. Treat ids as you would npm package names — additions are free, renames require a deprecation cycle, removals require a manifest schema version bump
Module version field: every module manifest declares a version string, pinned into stanza.json at install time. The upcoming swap/update verbs read it; today it's stored for forward compatibility. Bump it on schema-affecting changes (template additions, dep upgrades) per semver
Declarative beats imperative: prefer templates/dependencies/env/scripts over imperative codemods; the runner applies declarative fields generically
Reserved manifest fields: modules[slot].version and regions are written today but only fully consumed by the upcoming swap/update verbs — do not drop them
Web app hosts the canonical registry: pnpm --filter @stanza/web build runs prebuild which builds the registry (if missing) and copies it into apps/web/public/registry/. The deployed Vercel output therefore ships index.json + modules/*.json at the same origin. The published CLI's DEFAULT_REGISTRY_URL points at this same URL, so users get a working CLI with zero configuration. Self-hosters and CI override via STANZA_REGISTRY (URL or filesystem path)

Module authoring

module.ts exports defineModule({...}) with at least one adapter (use match: {} for "default / no peer"). Slot modules carry slot; add-on modules set kind: "addon" + category (one of KNOWN_ADDONS) and live in registry/modules/<category>-<id>/ (e.g. testing-vitest/). Add-ons are app/repo-scoped (no packageDir); give co-existing add-ons in a category disjoint scripts/file paths so their region claims don't collide
Templates go in templates/, referenced by src path. scope decides where dest lands:
- "app" (default) → manifest.appDir (e.g. apps/web/)
- "repo" → repo root
- "package" → packages/<packageDir>/ where packageDir is the active module's slot entry in SLOTS — only valid for slots with a non-null entry (auth, db, orm)
For auth/db/orm modules, default to scope: "package" for everything that can live inside the package boundary. Reach for scope: "app" only when a framework convention forces the file to sit at the app root (e.g. Next's middleware.ts, App Router API routes). App-scoped files should be thin shims that import from {{packageName}}; set template: true and the runner runs mustache substitution
For cross-package imports (e.g. auth reading db), declare consumesPackages: ["<dir>"] at the module level (not on each adapter). The runner adds the workspace dep on first apply. Write the import as {{<dir>PackageName}} (e.g. import { db } from "{{dbPackageName}}";)
Hoist shared install fields (dependencies, devDependencies, env, scripts) to the module level when they don't vary across adapters. Adapter-level values still work for true variations and override per-key. Example: Better Auth's dependencies: { "better-auth": "^1.6.11" } and the two env vars are declared once at module level; only the per-(framework, orm) templates and codemods sit in the adapter blocks
Framework modules MUST NOT ship a package.json.tpl — it collides with addPackageDependency. Let the runner merge deps into the host's package.json. The same rule applies to package-scoped modules: don't ship a packages/<dir>/package.json template — the runner's ensureSlotPackage bootstraps one and merges deps in
To invoke an imperative codemod from a module, add codemods: [{ id: "<catalog-id>", args: {...} }] to the adapter. Modules never ship code — if no catalog entry matches the need, design a new generic codemod with the right args. String values in args go through mustache substitution (same context as template bodies)
For codemods that operate on files inside a slot's package (e.g. extending the orm's schema barrel from the auth module), pass base: "package:<dir>" to the catalog codemod — re-export and append-to-file both honor it

Gotchas

Clack spinners (p.spinner()) don't auto-stop on promise rejection — wrap awaits in try/catch and call spinner.stop(...failed) in the catch
LSP diagnostics on template files (e.g. "Cannot find module 'react'") are noise; the global exclude works for tsc but tsserver still indexes them
The dev registry is found by walking up from import.meta.url looking for registry/modules/; STANZA_REGISTRY env var overrides (FS path or HTTP URL)
pnpm install says "Already up to date" when only workspace package.json files changed without lockfile-affecting bumps — use pnpm install --force to re-link
Oxlint has most but not all ESLint plugin rules — prevent-abbreviations, react/jsx-uses-react, etc. don't exist. Check node_modules/oxlint/configuration_schema.json if a rule name fails
oxfmt auto-loads .gitignore and .prettierignore; we use .oxfmtrc.json's ignorePatterns instead so we don't masquerade as a Prettier project

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