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, development dependencies, optional and peer dependencies, and scripts; Browserslist, ESLint configuration, and npm overrides are copied whole.

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, .npmignore, 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