backbone-scaffolding

name

backbone-scaffolding

description

Scaffolds production-ready monorepo projects using the backbone CLI: configures workspace packages, wires build tooling, sets up CI pipelines, and initializes framework/backend/CMS integrations. Use when creating, bootstrapping, or initializing a new application, project, starter template, or monorepo from scratch. Trigger terms: scaffold, bootstrap, init, new repo, new app, boilerplate, starter, greenfield.

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 — uses @clack/prompts to ask series of questions. Agents must run command, 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 → Next.js, supabase → Supabase). Non-1:1 exceptions:

TechTool	Backbone mapping
resend	emailLib in Packages prompt
vitest	Always included automatically
figma, chrome-devtools	Not handled by backbone; configure separately

Generated Project Structure

apps/ (web, conditional mobile), packages/ (conditional ui, email, llm, stripe), backend/ (one of convex/supabase/prisma/drizzle), e2e/, .github/workflows/. Always at root: vitest.config.ts, tsconfig.base.json, package.json, turbo.json/nx.json, ESLint, Prettier. Conditional root files: wrangler.toml (cloudflare), Dockerfile (coolify), sentry.*.config.ts (sentry, in apps/web/).

Agents on post-scaffolding tasks must not recreate these — they already exist. Import and extend.

Post-Scaffolding Steps

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

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

If something fails:

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

Example Convoy Task

{
  "id": "scaffold-monorepo",
  "agent": "developer",
  "prompt": "Run `npx @monkilabs/backbone my-app` interactively. Select: nx · nextjs · supabase · sanity · playwright · vercel · uiLib · stripe · sentry. Then `cd my-app && npm install && npx nx build`. Verify clean build before continuing.",
  "files": ["my-app/"],
  "timeout": "30m"
}