TESTING.md

Testing Templates and Extensions

Testing with published slugs

Use slugs from templates.json to generate and verify a project:

CI=true npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons tailwind-css zustand github-setup
cd my-app && npm install && npm run lint:fix && npm run build

Testing local changes with file://

Use file:// URLs to test unpublished templates or extensions without pushing to GitHub. customOptions defaults are read from cna.config.json inside the template directory, so all EJS variables resolve automatically in non-interactive mode.

REPO=/absolute/path/to/cna-templates

# Local template only
CI=true npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  -t "file://$REPO?subdir=templates/react-vite-starter"

# Local template + local extensions
CI=true npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  -t "file://$REPO?subdir=templates/react-vite-starter" \
  --addons \
    "file://$REPO?subdir=extensions/react-zustand" \
    "file://$REPO?subdir=extensions/all-github-setup" \
  --no-install
cd my-app && npm install && npm run lint:fix && npm run build

# Remote template slug + local extension (for extension-only development)
CI=true npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons "file://$REPO?subdir=extensions/my-new-extension"

Debug output

Add --verbose to any command to see detailed scaffolding logs.

CI Workflow

.github/workflows/test-combinations.yml runs on every push/PR to main and weekly on Sundays.

For each template it:

1. Picks one random compatible extension per category
2. Runs npx create-awesome-node-app --template <slug> --addons <...> (CI mode)
3. Verifies npm run format --if-present, npm run lint:fix --if-present, and npm run build --if-present all pass

To reproduce a CI run locally:

CI=true npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template <slug> --addons <ext1> <ext2>
cd my-app && npm run format --if-present && npm run lint:fix --if-present && npm run build --if-present