Bun

Templates

bun init

Scaffold an empty project with the interactive bun init command.

bun init
bun init helps you get started with a minimal project and tries to
guess sensible defaults. Press ^C anytime to quit.

package name (quickstart):
entry point (index.ts):

Done! A package.json file was saved in the current directory.
 + index.ts
 + .gitignore
 + tsconfig.json (for editor auto-complete)
 + README.md

To get started, run:
  bun run index.ts

Press enter to accept the default answer for each prompt, or pass the -y flag to auto-accept the defaults.

bun create

Template a new Bun project with bun create.

bun create <template> <destination>

Note — You don’t need bun create to use Bun. You don’t need any configuration at all. This command exists to make getting started a bit quicker and easier.

A template can take a number of forms:

bun create <template>         # an official template (remote)
bun create <username>/<repo>  # a GitHub repo (remote)
bun create <local-template>   # a custom template (local)

Running bun create performs the following steps:

  • Download the template (remote templates only)
  • Copy all template files into the destination folder. By default Bun will not overwrite any existing files. Use the --force flag to overwrite existing files.
  • Install dependencies with bun install.
  • Initialize a fresh Git repo. Opt out with the --no-git flag.
  • Run the template's configured start script, if defined.

Official templates

The following official templates are available.

bun create next ./myapp
bun create react ./myapp
bun create svelte-kit ./myapp
bun create elysia ./myapp
bun create hono ./myapp
bun create kingworld ./myapp

Each of these corresponds to a directory in the bun-community/create-templates repo. If you think a major framework is missing, please open a PR there. This list will change over time as additional examples are added. To see an up-to-date list, run bun create with no arguments.

bun create
Welcome to bun! Create a new project by pasting any of the following:
  <list of templates>

⚡️ Speed — At the time of writing, bun create react app runs ~11x faster on a M1 Macbook Pro than yarn create react-app app.

GitHub repos

A template of the form <username>/<repo> will be downloaded from GitHub.

bun create ahfarmer/calculator ./myapp

Complete GitHub URLs will also work:

bun create github.com/ahfarmer/calculator ./myapp
bun create https://github.com/ahfarmer/calculator ./myapp

Bun installs the files as they currently exist current default branch (usually main or master). Unlike git clone it doesn't download the commit history or configure a remote.

Local templates

⚠️ Warning — Unlike remote templates, running bun create with a local template will delete the entire destination folder if it already exists! Be careful.

Bun's templater can be extended to support custom templates defined on your local file system. These templates should live in one of the following directories:

  • $HOME/.bun-create/<name>: global templates
  • <project root>/.bun-create/<name>: project-specific templates

Note — You can customize the global template path by setting the BUN_CREATE_DIR environment variable.

To create a local template, navigate to $HOME/.bun-create and create a new directory with the desired name of your template.

cd $HOME/.bun-create
mkdir foo
cd foo

Then, create a package.json file in that directory with the following contents:

{
  "name": "foo"
}

You can run bun create foo elsewhere on your file system to verify that Bun is correctly finding your local template.

postinstallruns after installing dependencies
preinstallruns before installing dependencies

Each of these can correspond to a string or array of strings. An array of commands will be executed in order. Here is an example:

{
  "name": "@bun-examples/simplereact",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2"
  },
  "bun-create": {
    "preinstall": "echo 'Installing...'", // a single command
    "postinstall": ["echo 'Done!'"], // an array of commands
    "start": "bun run echo 'Hello world!'"
  }
}

When cloning a template, bun create will automatically remove the "bun-create" section from package.json before writing it to the destination folder.

Reference

CLI flags

FlagDescription
--forceOverwrite existing files
--no-installSkip installing node_modules & tasks
--no-gitDon’t initialize a git repository
--openStart & open in-browser after finish

Environment variables

NameDescription
GITHUB_API_DOMAINIf you’re using a GitHub enterprise or a proxy, you can customize the GitHub domain Bun pings for downloads
GITHUB_API_TOKENThis lets bun create work with private repositories or if you get rate-limited

How bun create works