GenerateSaaSgeneratesaas init
Scaffold a new SaaS project from the licensed boilerplate. Answer grouped prompts to choose your stack and features, or pass flags for non-interactive CI.
generatesaas init is the main entry point: it verifies your API key, collects options through grouped prompts, activates a license, downloads a versioned template tarball, runs the file generators, then installs dependencies and inits git. Every answer either flips a flag in @repo/config or wires up infrastructure, so the generated project ships with exactly the features you chose.
The flow
Run npx generatesaas@latest init <your-license-key> (the key from your purchase). Add flags to pre-fill any answer (e.g. --frontend, --payment stripe), or --yes to accept defaults non-interactively.
Verify access. Your API key is resolved in priority order - --api-key, then GENERATESAAS_API_KEY, then the saved ~/.generatesaas config, then a prompt - checked against the version index, then saved back to ~/.generatesaas. An invalid key (401) re-prompts, or aborts under --yes.
Answer the prompts. Four groups plus an optional Credentials group, top to bottom. Incompatible answers are filtered before you see them, single-option prompts auto-select, and pre-filled flags are skipped.
Confirm the summary. A grouped recap prints; answer n to abort with nothing written. If the target directory already exists and is non-empty, you first choose Merge, Overwrite, or Cancel (--yes auto-merges).
Generators run. The license is activated, the tarball downloads, generators rewrite config/env/Docker/etc., then pnpm install and git init finish the project.
Prompt groups
Prompts are data-driven from CLI metadata and shown in labelled sections. Credentials only appears when a chosen provider needs env vars.
| Group | What it covers | Defaults |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Project name, app display name, location, frontend framework | name my-saas, location ./{name} |
| Infrastructure | Deployment target, architecture (fullstack / separate), database provider, cache provider | node, fullstack, postgres, redis |
| Features | Payment provider + currency, email provider, multi-tenancy + billing scope, blog, docs app, credits, social login providers, revenue sharing | stripe + USD, smtp, multi-tenancy off (user scope), blog on, docs off, credits on, no social, revenue sharing off |
| Tooling | Docker services to scaffold, AI coding tools to install skills for | postgres, redis, inngest; no AI tools |
| Credentials | Optional env values for the providers you picked (DB, cache, payment, email, social) | all skipped |
Credentials are always optional: press Enter to skip any and fill them into the generated .env later. Multi-tenancy, docs, social login, and revenue sharing default off and hide the feature when disabled; blog and credits default on. See Configuration for how each answer maps onto a @repo/config flag.
Incompatible combinations
The CLI never offers an answer that cannot be built:
- Architecture × deployment target: blocked pairs (e.g. a separate-backend split that the target cannot host) are removed; a conflicting
--architecture+--deployflag combo errors out. - Database / cache × target: providers incompatible with the chosen target are filtered; if only one remains it auto-selects.
- Edge runtime: when the target runs on edge, unavailable features (local file storage, SMTP, Content API git integration) are listed up front. Under
--yesthe edge-safe providers (neon,upstash,resend) auto-select and local Docker services are dropped. - Dependent toggles: billing scope only appears with multi-tenancy on; currency is skipped (defaults
USD) and credits are forced off when the payment provider isnone.
Non-interactive use
For CI or scripted scaffolds, pass every answer as a flag plus --yes:
generatesaas init \
--name my-saas \
--frontend <framework> \
--deploy node \
--database neon \
--payment stripe --currency USD \
--email resend \
--org --billing-scope organization \
--api-key "$GENERATESAAS_API_KEY" \
--yes--yes accepts defaults for any unspecified option and skips the confirmation prompt. A --template-version <semver> flag pins a specific release instead of latest.
--base-url <url> has no prompt - it is a power-user flag with no interactive equivalent, so it is only set via the command line. Pass it to bake your production base URL (e.g. https://example.com) into the generated canonical, og, and sitemap URLs; omit it to fall back to localhost and fill it in later.
Next steps
CLI
Scaffold and maintain SaaS projects with the generatesaas CLI. License-gated commands handle init, updates, status, and eject from a versioned template.
Update
Pull the latest boilerplate version - the CLI stages a re-shaped template and your AI assistant applies the diff while preserving your customizations.