Skip to content
tinkerise

Getting Started

This guide takes you from a fresh machine to a running app scaffolded with tinkerise. Follow it top to bottom once, and you will have a local project running.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • Node.js 20.11 or newer
  • A package manager in your terminal (npm, pnpm, yarn, or bun)

You can confirm your setup with:

Terminal window
node --version

1) Install tinkerise

Section titled “1) Install tinkerise”
Terminal window
npm install -g tinkerise

Verify the CLI is available:

Terminal window
tinkerise --version

If the command prints a version number, you are ready.

2) Create your first project (guided flow)

Section titled “2) Create your first project (guided flow)”

Run the guided flow:

Terminal window
tinkerise

For this walkthrough, use these choices when prompted:

  • Category: web
  • Framework: next
  • Project name: hello-tinkerise
  • TypeScript: yes
  • Tailwind: yes
  • ESLint: yes

Expected terminal output (abbreviated):

$ tinkerise
? Select category › web
? Select framework › next
? Project name › hello-tinkerise
? Use TypeScript? › yes
? Add Tailwind CSS? › yes
? Add ESLint? › yes


Scaffolding Next.js project...
Running create-next-app hello-tinkerise --ts --tailwind --eslint


Project created successfully: hello-tinkerise
Next steps:
  cd hello-tinkerise
  npm run dev

3) Understand what just happened

Section titled “3) Understand what just happened”

tinkerise delegated project creation to the official Next.js scaffolder. That means your output looks familiar if you have used create-next-app before.

You should now have a folder like this:

hello-tinkerise/
├── package.json
├── next.config.*
├── tsconfig.json
├── src/
└── public/

4) Run the generated app

Section titled “4) Run the generated app”
Terminal window
cd hello-tinkerise
npm run dev

Then open the local URL printed by your dev server (usually http://localhost:3000).

5) Try another framework (optional)

Section titled “5) Try another framework (optional)”

When you run tinkerise again, you can pick another scaffolder. Common IDs you will see in prompts and docs:

  • next
  • vite
  • astro
  • express

Each one delegates to its official tool, then returns you to the same tinkerise workflow.

6) Add enhancements (optional)

Section titled “6) Add enhancements (optional)”

Inside your project, you can layer tooling like Prettier, Husky, Docker, or CI:

Terminal window
tinkerise add prettier husky

7) Where to go next

Section titled “7) Where to go next”