bun create is a fast way to create a new project from a template. At the time of writing, bun create react app runs ~14x faster on my local computer than yarn create react-app app. bun create currently does no caching (though your npm client does)

Usage

Templates are downloaded from folders inside examples/ in Bun's GitHub repo. Running bun create react ./local-path downloads the react folder from examples/react.

Create a new Next.js project:

bun create next ./app`

Create a new React project:

bun create react ./app

To see a list of available templates, run

bun create

Advanced

Flag	Description
--npm	Use `npm` for tasks & install
--yarn	Use `yarn` for tasks & install
--pnpm	Use `pnpm` for tasks & install
--force	Overwrite existing files
--no-install	Skip installing `node_modules` & tasks
--no-git	Don't initialize a git repository
----------------------	-----------------------------------

By default, bun create will cancel if there are existing files it would overwrite. You can pass --force to disable this behavior.

Adding a new template

Clone this repository and a new folder in examples/ with your new template. The package.json must have a name that starts with @bun-examples/. Do not worry about publishing it, that will happen automaticallly after the PR is merged.

Make sure to include a .gitignore that includes node_modules so that node_modules aren't checked in to git when people download the template.

Testing your new template

Config

The bun-create section of package.json is automatically removed from the package.json on disk. This lets you add create-only steps without waiting for an extra package to install.

There are currently two options:

postinstall
preinstall

They can be an array of strings or one string. An array of steps will be executed in order.

Here is an example:

{
  "name": "@bun-examples/next",
  "version": "0.0.31",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "next": "11.1.2",
    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2",
    "react-is": "^17.0.2"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/react": "^17.0.19",
    "bun-framework-next": "^0.0.0-21",
    "typescript": "^4.3.5"
  },
  "bun-create": {
    "postinstall": ["bun bun --use next"]
  }
}

By default, all commands run inside the environment exposed by the auto-detected npm client. This incurs a significant performance penalty, something like 150ms spent waiting for the npm client to start on each invocation.

Any command that starts with "bun " will be run without npm, relying on the first bun binary in $PATH.

How `bun create` works

When you run bun create ${template} ${destination}, here's what happens:

GET registry.npmjs.org/@bun-examples/${template}/latest and parse it
GET registry.npmjs.org/@bun-examples/${template}/-/${template}-${latestVersion}.tgz
Decompress & extract ${template}-${latestVersion}.tgz into ${destination}
- If there are files that would overwrite, warn and exit unless --force is passed
Parse the package.json (again!), update name to be ${basename(destination)}, remove the bun-create section from the package.json and save updated package.json to disk
Auto-detect the npm client, preferring pnpm, yarn (v1), and lastly npm
Run any tasks defined in "bun-create": { "preinstall" } with the npm client
Run ${npmClient} install
Run any tasks defined in "bun-create": { "preinstall" } with the npm client
Run git init; git add -A .; git commit -am "Initial Commit";.
- Rename gitignore to .gitignore. NPM automatically removes .gitignore files from appearing in packages.
Done

../misctools/publish-examples.js publishes all examples to npm.

README.md