zdev Express Template

A starter template for zdev that creates an Express.js project with a working local development environment.

What's included

• Node.js 22 (Alpine) container
• Express.js hello world app
• HTTPS via zdev's shared Traefik router
• Mutagen file sync (macOS) with node_modules kept inside the container

Usage

zdev create express my-app
cd my-app
zdev setup

After setup completes, your app is running at https://my-app.0ploy.dev.

What zdev setup does

1. Starts the Docker container (zdev start)
2. Enables pnpm via corepack
3. Installs dependencies (pnpm install)
4. Marks setup as complete - the app starts automatically

All commands can be seen in .zdev/commands/setup.just.

Project structure

my-app/
  .zdev/
    config.yaml            # zdev project configuration
    commands/
      setup.just           # Setup script (installs dependencies)
  app.js                   # Express hello world
  package.json             # Dependencies
  .gitignore

Development

The app runs with Node.js --watch mode - edit app.js and changes are picked up automatically, no restart needed.

To add packages:

zdev exec app pnpm add <package>

Requirements

• zdev installed
• Docker Desktop running

Learn more

Want to create your own template? See the Template Authoring Guide.