create-glstack

Scaffold a fullstack application with a Go backend, PostgreSQL database, and your choice of web and mobile frontends, connected via Connect RPC.

Supported web frontends:

• SvelteKit
• Solid Start

Supported mobile frontends:

• React Native + Expo

Usage

bun create glstack

The CLI asks for:

• Project name -- lowercase letters, digits and dashes; used for the directory, the database and the @<name>/rpc package. An existing non-empty directory is never overwritten
• Web frontend -- SvelteKit, Solid Start or none
• Mobile frontend -- React Native + Expo or none
• Bundle identifier (Expo only) -- reverse-DNS id used as both the iOS bundle identifier and the Android package, e.g. com.example.app
• Go package prefix -- e.g. github.com/you, giving the module path github.com/you/<name>
• Install dependencies -- runs bun install in the new project

What you get

A monorepo with the following structure:

• services/api -- Go backend using Cobra for CLI, pgx for Postgres, and Connect RPC for the API layer
• apps/web -- Web frontend app (SvelteKit or Solid Start)
• apps/mobile -- Optional React Native + Expo mobile app sharing the same RPC client
• packages/proto -- Protobuf service definitions with Buf for codegen (Go + TypeScript)
• packages/rpc -- Generated TypeScript Connect RPC client shared across frontend apps
• scripts -- Codegen helpers, e.g. building the packages/rpc index from the generated client

Dev environment

The template includes a devenv.nix configuration for macOS and Linux that sets up:

• Go, TypeScript, Bun, Node.js
• PostgreSQL with an auto-provisioned database
• File watchers for protobuf, SQL, and frontend hot reload with proper process dependency ordering
• Air for Go live reload
• sqlc for type-safe SQL
• dbmate for database migrations
• With Expo: the Android SDK and an emulator, plus the iOS simulator on macOS

Start everything with:

cd <name>
devenv up

Mobile (Expo)

devenv up starts Metro as its own process, creates an Android emulator matching your CPU (arm64 or x86_64), waits up to 5 minutes for it to boot and runs the app on it. On macOS it also builds and runs the app on the iOS simulator. Both apps use the same Metro bundler, so saving a file reloads both, and one platform failing to build doesn't stop the other.

The app reaches the API at 127.0.0.1:8080 everywhere: the iOS simulator shares the Mac's network, and devenv up runs adb reverse for the emulator and any Android phone connected over USB. Physical iPhones aren't covered, since the API only listens on localhost.

The example apps poll the API every 2 seconds, so a change made on one device or in the web app shows up on the others.

The native ios/ and android/ folders are generated from app.json and not committed. After changing native config or upgrading Expo, delete them and they are regenerated on the next run.

iOS on macOS

Nix can't provide Xcode, so the iOS simulator needs a few things installed on the Mac. Entering the devenv shell checks them and lists anything missing (once they pass, at most once a day); run ios-check to check again. Until they are met, devenv up skips iOS and runs everything else. Set SKIP_IOS_CHECK=1 to turn the check off, e.g. in devenv.local.nix.

Requirement	How to fix
Xcode	Install it from the App Store
Xcode license and first-launch setup	sudo xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch
An iOS simulator runtime	xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS
An iPhone simulator	Create one in Xcode › Window › Devices and Simulators

CocoaPods comes from Nix. The iOS build uses /Applications/Xcode.app (or the Xcode chosen with xcode-select) outside the Nix compiler environment, so the Command Line Tools being selected is fine.

Starter example

The generated project includes a working Todo CRUD example wired end-to-end: protobuf schema, Go service implementation, SQL queries, and frontend UI. In the mobile app, rows animate into place with Reanimated when a todo is checked off and the list re-sorts.

License

MIT