Introduction

nestforge is a command-line tool that scaffolds a production-ready NestJS backend. Run npx create-nestforge, answer a couple of prompts, and you get a working application you can build on.

What you get

The generated project ships with:

• Express + REST — a NestJS API with URI versioning (/api/v1).
• Express + GraphQL — pick it at scaffold time to layer an Apollo (code-first) /graphql endpoint over the REST API, with auth and user resolvers plus per-request DataLoaders.
• Auth-ready — Passport local and Google OAuth strategies, Redis-backed sessions, guards, DTO validation, email-verification codes, and password reset.
• WebSocket gateway — socket.io with gated, session-authenticated connections and per-user rooms for 1-to-1 messaging.
• Background jobs — BullMQ queues for mail and upload processing.
• Mailer — @nestjs-modules/mailer with Handlebars templates for verification and password-reset emails.
• Prod-grade abstractions — repository pattern (USER_REPOSITORY token) and an injectable upload service, so you swap implementations without touching callers.
• Testing suite — Suites-based unit tests (TestBed.solitary) with a configured Jest setup.
• Security baseline — Helmet, CSRF double-submit cookies, global rate limiting with Redis-backed storage.
• Observability — Swagger/Scalar docs at /api-docs, Terminus health checks, Winston logging with request context.

Boots without a database

Persistence is a no-op stub by default. USER_REPOSITORY resolves to an in-memory repository, so the app boots and runs before you decide how to store users. Swap in a real repository when you are ready.

What it is not

No database, no ORM, no opinion about your frontend. The baseline stays small and swappable — you add what your project needs.

Next steps

Dive into the Quickstart to scaffold your first project in under a minute.