Build Elevate

A production-ready monorepo starter that eliminates weeks of SaaS boilerplate - authentication, database, email, rate limiting, and deployment configs in a single cohesive foundation.

Overview

Every SaaS application begins with the same decisions - which auth library to use, how to structure the monorepo, where emails get sent from, how to connect the database. These are solved problems. build-elevate treats them that way.

It's a full-stack monorepo starter that bundles a production-ready authentication system, database layer, transactional email pipeline, UI component library, and API rate limiting into a single, deployable foundation. The goal is simple: skip setup week entirely and ship something real on day one.

build-elevate is available as a CLI package on npm. Run pnpm dlx build-elevate@latest init my-project to scaffold a new project interactively.

The Problem

Junior developers spend days reading docs before writing a line of product code. Senior developers write the same auth boilerplate for the fifth time. SaaS teams onboard new engineers with a wall of setup instructions that takes a week to execute.

The underlying architecture - monorepo, auth, ORM, email, rate limiting - is almost identical across products. The variance is in the product itself. build-elevate isolates that variance and handles everything else.

Architecture

The project is structured as a Turborepo monorepo with a clean separation between applications and shared packages.

turbo.json

pnpm-workspace.yaml

docker-compose.yml

Each package is independently versioned and consumed via workspace aliases (@workspace/auth, @workspace/db, etc.). This makes it straightforward to extract or replace individual layers without touching the rest of the system.

Technology Decisions

Each tool in the stack was chosen deliberately, not by default.

Layer	Choice	Rationale
Build System	Turborepo	Incremental builds with remote caching; tasks only run when inputs change
Frontend	Next.js 16 (Turbopack) + TanStack Query	App Router for routing and layouts; TanStack Query for server state management, caching, and background refetching
Backend	Express	Unopinionated HTTP server; easy to extend without framework lock-in
Database	Prisma + PostgreSQL	Type-safe queries generated from schema; migrations are version-controlled
Auth	Better Auth	Session-based auth with OAuth support on the both web and API
UI	shadcn/ui + Tailwind CSS	Accessible, unstyled primitives that you own - not a dependency to update
Email	React Email + Resend	Templates written as React components; Resend handles deliverability
Rate Limiting	Upstash Redis	Serverless-compatible; no persistent connection management required
Testing	Vitest	Presets configured for both Node.js and React environments
Code Quality	ESLint + Prettier	Unified rules and deterministic formatting

Getting Started

Install Prerequisites

You'll need Node.js 20+ and a package manager. pnpm is recommended for workspace support.

# Verify Node.js version
node --version  # Should be v20+

# Install pnpm
npm install -g pnpm@latest

Scaffold the Project

The interactive CLI handles project naming, package manager selection, and optional extras like Docker and Prisma Studio.

pnpm dlx build-elevate@latest init my-project

Configure Environment Variables

Populate each .env.local file before starting the dev server.

Start the Development Server

cd my-project
pnpm dev

All services start concurrently:

Service	URL
Web (Next.js)	http://localhost:3000
API (Express)	http://localhost:4000
Email Preview	http://localhost:3002
Database UI	http://localhost:5555

Key Features

Authentication

The @workspace/auth package wraps Better Auth and exposes session management, OAuth flows, and middleware helpers. Authentication state is shared between the Next.js frontend and Express API through a common session layer - no token passing or cookie duplication required.

Database Layer

@workspace/db contains the Prisma schema, generated client, and migration history. Schema changes propagate to both the API and frontend through type inference - if a model field is renamed, TypeScript surfaces the breakage across the entire monorepo before anything ships.

# After modifying the schema
pnpm db:generate   # Regenerate the Prisma client
pnpm db:migrate    # Apply the migration

Email Pipeline

Email templates live in @workspace/email as React components. The apps/email application provides a local preview server so you can see how a template renders before it's ever sent. Resend handles delivery in production.

// packages/email/src/templates/welcome.tsx
export function WelcomeEmail({ name }: { name: string }) {
  return (
    <Html>
      <Body>
        <Heading>Welcome, {name}.</Heading>
        <Text>Your account is ready.</Text>
      </Body>
    </Html>
  );
}

Rate Limiting

The @workspace/rate-limit package wraps Upstash Redis with a simple middleware interface for Express routes. It's designed to work in serverless and edge environments without a persistent connection.

Development Workflow

Targeted Builds

Turborepo's --filter flag lets you run commands against specific apps or packages, which speeds up the inner development loop significantly.

pnpm dev --filter=web
pnpm dev --filter=api

pnpm dev --filter=@workspace/auth
pnpm dev --filter=@workspace/ui

pnpm dev       # All apps and packages
pnpm build     # Full production build
pnpm test      # All test suites

Code Quality

Linting, formatting, and type checking are all enforced through shared configuration packages - no per-app setup required.

pnpm check-types    # TypeScript across the entire monorepo
pnpm lint           # ESLint with @workspace/eslint-config
pnpm format         # Prettier with @workspace/prettier-config

Deployment

The modular structure makes each app independently deployable. There's no requirement to host everything on the same platform.

Application	Recommended Platforms
Web (Next.js)	Vercel, Netlify, Railway
API (Express)	Railway, Heroku, AWS, DigitalOcean
Database	Neon, AWS RDS, Railway Postgres, Supabase

Docker

A production docker-compose.prod.yml is included for teams that prefer container-based deployments. It covers the web frontend, Express API, and PostgreSQL with health checks and restart policies pre-configured.

docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up --build

The root docker-compose.yml is for local development only. Use docker-compose.prod.yml for production environments.

Reflections

build-elevate emerged from a straightforward frustration: the gap between "I have an idea" and "I have a running server with auth" was consistently measured in days, not hours. The project doesn't introduce new abstractions - it connects established, well-maintained tools in a way that's immediately usable and easy to reason about.

The design principle throughout was replacability. No piece of the stack is load-bearing in a way that makes it painful to swap. Better Auth can be replaced with Clerk. Resend can be replaced with Postmark. The packages expose minimal surface area by design.

If you're starting a SaaS product and find yourself writing auth middleware from scratch, this exists so you don't have to.