TypeScript Backend Toolkit V2 - the Express stack that writes its own docs, SDK, and admin UI while you code

👋 Hey there,


Muneeb here. After losing one too many afternoons to:

• “Where did I put that route?”
  


• “Why is OpenAPI docs out of sync again?”
  


• “Who broke the build by pushing any to prod?”

…I quietly built the backend I wish the Node ecosystem already had.


Today it’s open-source and ready for prime-time.

👉 Repo: https://github.com/muneebhashone/typescript-backend-toolkit


👉 Web: https://tstoolkit.themuneebh.com

What it is (in one breath)

A plugin-based, type-safe Express boilerplate that ships with:

• 
  MagicRouter – writes OpenAPI specs & Swagger UI for you from Zod schemas
  


• 
  Artisan-like CLI – pnpm tbk generate:module users scaffolds model → DTO → service → controller → router in 2 s
  


• 
  Auto-generated TS SDK – pnpm gen-sdk spits out a fully-typed client for your front-end
  


• 
  Built-in admin panel – Django-style CRUD at /admin (zero config)
  


• 
  Queue dashboard, email preview, Socket.IO tester, Prometheus metrics – all mounted and protected
  


• 
  Formidable uploads, BullMQ jobs, Redis/Mongo sessions, S3/R2/local storage – plug & play via env vars

…and enough guardrails that even the intern can’t push broken code.

30-second spin-up

pnpm dlx create-tbk-app



cd <project-name>



pnpm dev

Need a users module?

pnpm tbk generate:module user

CLI drops 6 files.


Add your fields, run pnpm dev, refresh /docs - spec is live.

The “MagicRouter” pitch

Never write another route definition by hand:

// user.router.ts

router.post(

  '/register',

  {

    requestType: { body: registerSchema },

    responses: { 201: userOutSchema },

  },

  canAccess(),                  // optional auth middleware

  handleRegister,               // controller

);

That single object literal becomes:

• Runtime validation (Zod)
  


• OpenAPI JSON & Swagger UI
  


• TypeScript types for both request and response
  


• A typed SDK method when you run pnpm tbk docs:sdk
  

Change the schema → spec & SDK regenerate themselves.


Plain Express routers are banned – the CLI won’t even generate them.

Plugin buffet (all warmed up)

Register only what you need – each plugin is a single line in src/app/app.ts.

CLI cheatsheet (copy-paste ready)

pnpm tbk generate:module  posts   --path /api/v1

pnpm tbk generate:plugin  stripe

pnpm tbk generate:middleware throttle

pnpm tbk generate:factory product

pnpm tbk seed

pnpm tbk docs:openapi && pnpm tbk docs:sdk

Why we chose (and sometimes banned) things

• 
  Zod over Joi/Yup - same parser for validation, types, and OpenAPI
  


• 
  Formidable over Multer - streaming parser that lands files in req.body (no req.file chaos)
  


• 
  Mongoose schemas stripped of validators - all validation lives in Zod DTOs; DB layer stays lean
  


• 
  Never process.env directly - single src/config/env.ts validated at boot, autocomplete everywhere
  


• 
  pnpm (recommended) - workspace scripts, fast installs, locked versions
  

Production checklist (all green)

• ✅ Graceful shutdown handled
  


• ✅ Request/response validation toggle (RESPONSE_VALIDATION=strict)
  


• ✅ Prometheus metrics exposed (/metrics)
  


• ✅ Health, ready, live probes (/health, /ready)
  

Roadmap (contributions welcome)

• Prisma adapter alongside Mongoose
  


• tRPC plugin for folks who want RPC flavour
  


• GraphQL plugin (via Mercurius)
  


• Deno / Bun compatibility passes
  

Drop an issue or PR – the codebase is aggressively documented.

Grab it & ship

pnpm dlx create-tbk-app

cd <project-name>

pnpm dev

Star the repo if it saves you even an hour - that’s one more hour for memes.


Questions? Open a discussion, I hang out there nightly.

Happy shipping! 🛳️