Custom and local templates

ness new can create an application from an official starter, an npm package, or a directory on the local filesystem.

Local directory

Pass a relative, absolute, home-relative, or file: path:

ness new my-app --template ./templates/company-app
ness new my-app --template /Users/me/templates/company-app
ness new my-app --template ~/templates/company-app
ness new my-app --template file:../company-app

A direct template directory must contain app/:

company-app/
├── app/
│   ├── root.tsx
│   └── routes/
├── public/
├── ness.config.mjs
├── tsconfig.json
└── Dockerfile

TypeScript is detected automatically from tsconfig.json. Ness generates the destination package.json, installs the framework dependencies, and copies the remaining files.

Package-style template

For a template that can also be published to npm, place application files inside template/:

company-template/
├── package.json
├── template.json
└── template/
    ├── app/
    ├── public/
    └── ness.config.mjs

package.json

{
  "name": "@company/ness-template",
  "type": "module",
  "files": ["template", "template.json"],
  "ness": {
    "template": "template"
  }
}

The ness.template field is optional when the directory is named template.

Package customizations

Use template.json to add dependencies, scripts, and supported package metadata:

template.json

{
  "package": {
    "description": "Company web application",
    "scripts": {
      "storybook": "storybook dev -p 6006"
    },
    "dependencies": {
      "@company/ui": "^2.0.0"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
      "storybook": "^10.0.0"
    }
  }
}

Ness preserves the generated application name, version, ESM mode, private flag, and Node requirement. It merges dependencies, scripts, optional and peer dependencies, Browserslist, ESLint configuration, and npm overrides.

The prettier field is also copied into the generated package.json, so formatting rules do not require a separate .prettierrc file.

Copy safety

The following development artifacts are never copied from a local template:

• node_modules, .git, build, dist, deploy, .react-router, and .ness
• npm, pnpm, Yarn, and Bun lock files
• source package.json and template.json

The application directory cannot be placed inside the source template directory, preventing recursive copies.

npm registry template

Published scoped packages can be used directly:

ness new my-app --template @company/ness-template

Unscoped aliases continue to resolve through the ness-template-* convention:

ness new my-app --template commerce
# Installs ness-template-commerce