Shipping ds-start: What I Learned Building an AI-Native Starter

I just published ds-start to npm. It's an opinionated CLI that scaffolds Next.js projects with strict TypeScript, shadcn/ui, type-safe API routes, environment validation, and built-in agentic coding workflows.

This post is about why I built it, what I learned, and what's next.

The Problem

Every new project starts the same way: scaffold Next.js, configure ESLint, add Prettier, set up Husky, install shadcn, wire up a theme toggle, add environment validation, create API route patterns, configure TypeScript strict mode... two hours of boilerplate before writing a single line of business logic.

I've done this enough times that the setup phase felt like a tax on starting new ideas.

What ds-start Does

npx ds-start my-app --prisma --auth --github-workflows

One command gives you:

• Next.js 16 with App Router and Turbopack

• TypeScript strict mode — no any, no escape hatches

• shadcn/ui with Tailwind CSS 4

• next-ts-api for end-to-end type-safe API routes

• varlock for schema-driven environment validation

• Husky + lint-staged pre-commit hooks

• Composable extras