etylsarin/backbone-scaffolding

backbone-scaffolding Skill

Requirements

• Node.js >= 22.5.0 must be available in the environment
• Run backbone with npx @monkilabs/backbone <project-name>

How to Use the CLI

Backbone is interactive — it uses @clack/prompts to ask a series of questions. Agents must run the command and respond to each prompt in sequence.

Prompt Sequence

1. Monorepo tool — nx or turborepo
2. Framework — nextjs or astro
3. Backend — convex, supabase, prisma, or drizzle
4. CMS — sanity, contentful, strapi, or none
5. E2E Testing — playwright or cypress
6. Deployment — vercel, netlify, cloudflare, coolify, or none
7. Mobile — ionic, expo, or none (only shown for non-Astro frameworks)
8. Packages — multi-select: uiLib, emailLib, llmLib
9. Payments — stripe or none
10. Observability — sentry or none

CLI Options & Constraints

| Category | Choices | Notes | |---------------|--------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------| | Monorepo | nx, turborepo | Required | | Framework | nextjs, astro | Required | | Backend | convex, supabase, prisma, drizzle | ⛔ convex incompatible with astro | | CMS | sanity, contentful, strapi, none | Optional | | E2E Testing | playwright, cypress | Required | | Deployment | vercel, netlify, cloudflare, coolify, none | Optional | | Mobile | ionic, expo, none | ⛔ ionic and expo incompatible with astro | | Packages | uiLib, emailLib, llmLib | Multi-select; ⛔ uiLib incompatible with astro | | Payments | stripe, none | Optional | | Observability | sentry, none | Optional |

Astro constraint: astro requires React-free options — never combine with convex, ionic, expo, or uiLib.

OpenCastle TechTool → Backbone Mapping

Most TechTool names map 1:1 to backbone prompt choices (e.g. nextjs → select Next.js, supabase → select Supabase). Exceptions:

| TechTool | Backbone mapping | Notes | |----------|-----------------|-------| | resend | Select emailLib in Packages prompt | Only non-obvious mapping | | drizzle | Select drizzle in Backend prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping | | cloudflare | Select cloudflare in Deployment prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping | | coolify | Select coolify in Deployment prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping | | expo | Select expo in Mobile prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping; incompatible with astro | | stripe | Select stripe in Payments prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping | | sentry | Select sentry in Observability prompt | Direct 1:1 mapping | | vitest | — | Always included automatically | | figma, chrome-devtools | — | Not handled by backbone; configure separately |

Generated Project Structure

After backbone runs, the output directory contains:

<project-name>/
  apps/
    web/          # Next.js or Astro application
    mobile/       # (if ionic or expo selected)
  packages/
    ui/           # (if uiLib selected) shared React component library
    email/        # (if emailLib selected) Resend/React Email package
    llm/          # (if llmLib selected) LLM integration package
    stripe/       # (if stripe selected) Stripe client + webhook handler
  backend/
    convex/       # (if convex selected)
    supabase/     # (if supabase selected)
    prisma/       # (if prisma selected)
    drizzle/      # (if drizzle selected) schema, config, migrations
  e2e/            # Playwright or Cypress tests
  .github/
    workflows/    # GitHub Actions CI pipelines (always included)
  vitest.config.ts          # Always included
  tsconfig.base.json        # Always included
  package.json              # Monorepo root package.json
  turbo.json / nx.json      # Monorepo tool config
  wrangler.toml             # (if cloudflare selected)
  Dockerfile                # (if coolify selected)
  sentry.*.config.ts        # (if sentry selected) in apps/web/

Always included regardless of options: Vitest configuration, GitHub Actions CI workflows, root tsconfig.base.json, ESLint, Prettier.

Agents working on post-scaffolding tasks must not recreate any of these files — they already exist. Build on top of the generated structure.

Post-Scaffolding Steps

After npx @monkilabs/backbone <project-name> completes:

1. cd <project-name> into the generated directory
2. Run npm install to install all dependencies
3. Verify the project builds: run the monorepo build command (e.g. npx turbo build or npx nx build)
4. All subsequent agent tasks should import and extend the generated boilerplate — never overwrite it

If something fails:

• npm install errors → verify Node.js >= 22.5.0 (node -v)
• Build errors → check that no incompatible options were selected (see Astro constraint above); re-run backbone with corrected choices if needed
• Wrong option selected → delete the generated directory and re-run npx @monkilabs/backbone with the correct selections

Example Convoy Task

See EXAMPLES.md for a complete scaffolding task JSON.