Start is a builder for developers who know what kind of application they want to create, but do not want to spend the first day assembling the repository around it.

Choose your coding agents, interface direction, application services, and delivery target in the browser. Start turns those decisions into a versioned blueprint. Run one command locally and it creates a focused, agent-ready Next.js workspace.

npx @bishoymly/start@latest --blueprint v1.<token>

The CLI asks for the app name, writes the workspace, and installs its dependencies. Your architectural decisions arrive with it as readable specifications, agent instructions, skills, and verification commands—not only as entries in package.json.

Package: @bishoymly/start
Prerequisites: Node.js 20 or newer
Post updated: August 16, 2026

Why I built Start

Most starter repositories begin helpfully and become difficult to change.

They often contain several authentication strategies, multiple database adapters, optional AI providers, two deployment paths, and enough conditional code to support combinations their author never uses. You clone the repository, remove half of it, and then try to determine which conventions still apply.

The opposite approach—starting from an empty Next.js application—is clean, but repeats a different kind of work. You still need to establish the design direction, agent instructions, testing setup, observability, repository commands, and the boundaries between server and client code.

Start takes a third approach: generate a small workspace from explicit decisions.

The result should contain the path you selected, not an abstraction over every path you could have selected. The blueprint remains available as a record of why the repository looks the way it does.

The browser decides; the CLI builds

Start is intentionally split into two parts.

The web builder is the right place to compare choices. It explains when each option fits, shows only strong dependency-driven recommendations, preserves state in a shareable URL, and lets you revisit any section without losing your work.

The local CLI is the right place to create files and install dependencies. Your source code does not need to be uploaded to a website, and the generated workspace begins on your machine under your control.

The blueprint token connects the two. It contains the normalized active choices and their provenance. It does not send dormant or hidden branch answers to the generator.

Five sections, in dependency order

The questions are organized so later recommendations can use earlier answers.

1. Essentials

Select one or more coding agents in a single question. Start currently supports Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Windsurf, and Grok Build. Every selected agent receives its native configuration; the first selected agent anchors the shared instructions.

Then choose the package manager, code host, and hosting target. Code host is a first-class question because it directly controls whether Start writes GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure Pipelines.

Hosting comes before application capabilities. That lets Start show only the database and storage choices that fit the deployment environment instead of presenting every cloud service at once. npm, GitHub, Vercel, and Base UI begin selected as low-friction defaults, but they are ordinary options rather than universal recommendations.

2. Interface

Choose a shadcn/ui foundation—Base UI, Radix UI, or React Aria—followed by a design reference, theme, and motion level. Base UI is the default foundation.

The first catalog includes ten references from Awesome DESIGN.md: Apple, Airbnb, Nike, Stripe, Linear, Notion, Spotify, Figma, Shopify, and WIRED. They are design references, not affiliated with or endorsed by the named brands.

The catalog is a scannable text list with descriptive tags. It does not use brand logos, copied screenshots, or synthetic thumbnails that imply an accurate preview. Selecting a reference provides a strong theme and motion recommendation, but both remain yours to override.

The chosen upstream DESIGN.md is pinned to an immutable commit and later copied into the generated project unchanged. Start does not reinterpret its fonts, dependencies, or written design direction.

3. Capabilities

Select authentication, database, ORM, storage, and AI providers. The available database and storage answers are already narrowed by the hosting choice from Essentials.

The order matters. For example, selecting Better Auth recommends Postgres, the selected host's preferred Postgres provider, and Drizzle only while those decisions are still recommendation-controlled. If you explicitly choose another compatible provider and Prisma, Start preserves those choices instead of silently resetting them.

4. Delivery

Playwright and OpenTelemetry are always included. Sentry is optional, and the CI file follows the code host selected earlier. Cross-cloud selections produce a visible warning rather than an arbitrary hard error.

5. Review and generate

The final screen shows an editable summary, the reason behind each recommendation, compatibility errors, portability warnings, and the command to run.

Every summary item links back to its section. The browser URL also carries the current decisions, their origins, dormant branch state, and wizard stage, so a blueprint can be reviewed or shared before anything is generated.

You do not have to wait for the final step to understand the output. A persistent Current blueprint stays beside the wizard and includes the generated command as soon as the required choices are complete. The token is visually limited to one line; Copy still puts the complete command on the clipboard, and Share copies the current blueprint URL.

Below it, a live Workspace panel begins with the minimal scaffold and grows with your selections. Choose another coding agent and its native configuration path appears. Add Better Auth, a database, storage, AI, or Sentry and the corresponding files, packages, and source repositories appear. Remove the choice and the entry disappears. The panel describes what this blueprint will generate, not every option Start could generate.

Recommendations that respect a change of mind

Adaptive wizards can become frustrating when changing an early answer destroys careful work later in the flow. Start tracks whether every value came from a recommendation or from the user.

That produces three useful behaviors:

  • Only recommendation-controlled values are recalculated.
  • Compatible downstream choices survive earlier changes.
  • Answers from temporarily disabled branches are kept dormant and restored if that branch returns.

Automatic changes include a short explanation and an Undo action. Sections can be reset independently, and starting over requires confirmation. Neutral defaults are selected without a Recommended badge; that label is reserved for strong guidance such as a design reference's theme and motion or Better Auth's data requirements.

The goal is to make recommendations helpful without turning them into hidden configuration changes.

What the generated workspace contains

Start creates a specification-first project. The important files include:

  • APP_BLUEPRINT.md for the product and architecture decisions.
  • The selected upstream DESIGN.md, copied byte-for-byte after its pinned hash is verified.
  • AGENTS.md plus native configuration for the selected coding agents.
  • Project-local skills and skills-lock.json.
  • Portable /implement-blueprint, /verify, /review, and /ship-check workflows.

The skill bundle covers the Next.js development loop, React practices, composition, web design, Playwright, Karpathy-inspired coding guidelines, design taste, and security review. The chosen DESIGN.md remains the interface authority; the supporting skills contribute accessibility, responsiveness, implementation quality, and verification.

Every project also receives consistent scripts:

dev        build       start
lint       typecheck   verify
test:e2e   test:e2e:ui

This does not mean the generated application is finished. Start creates the repository contract and the correct implementation path for your choices. The agent workflows then have specific documents to implement and specific commands to use when verifying the result.

A concrete first run

Try this path if you want to see the recommendation system working without designing a large application first:

  1. Open bishoy.io/start.
  2. Keep Codex, npm, GitHub, and Vercel in Essentials.
  3. Keep Base UI and choose the Linear reference with its recommended dark theme and subtle motion.
  4. Select Better Auth and keep the recommended Neon and Drizzle setup.
  5. Watch the Workspace panel add the design, authentication, database, ORM, agent configuration, and source links.
  6. Copy the generated command from Current blueprint or the final review.
  7. Run it in the directory where you keep your projects, then enter the app name when prompted.
  8. Open APP_BLUEPRINT.md and DESIGN.md before asking your coding agent to run /implement-blueprint.

If you already have an application name for automation, pass it before the blueprint flag:

npx @bishoymly/start@latest acme-app --blueprint v1.<token>

v0.2 boundaries

Start remains deliberately constrained. It targets Next.js workspaces, supports no authentication or Better Auth, uses Postgres when a database is needed, and generates only the selected provider path. Motion is Off, Subtle, or Expressive; GSAP and scroll hijacking are outside the v0.2 contract.

Those constraints make the output easier to understand and test. Future integrations should earn their place by producing a coherent generated repository, not merely by adding another option to the wizard.

Open source and ready to try

Start is open source inside the bishoylabib repository, and the CLI is published as @bishoymly/start.

Build a blueprint with Start, inspect what it plans to generate, and share feedback through GitHub issues. The most useful feedback right now is a specific combination that produces an unclear recommendation, an incomplete workspace contract, or unnecessary generated code.