starterpack: The Go + React SaaS Starter

starterpack is a production-ready, deployable Turborepo SaaS starter template. It combines a blazing-fast Vite + TanStack Router (React) frontend with a robust Go hexagonal backend. Featuring a shadcn/ui design system and feature-toggled integrations (Clerk, Stripe, analytics, email, error tracking). A powerful re-platform of next-forge onto Vite + Go.

Scaffold with create-go-starter

You can scaffold a new app from the starterpack monorepo template using our CLI:

bun create go-starter my-app     # via bun's create-* resolver
bunx create-go-starter my-app    # via npm/bunx
npm create go-starter@latest my-app

If you omit the name it will prompt for one. The CLI downloads the template from GitHub, renames the root package.json, reinitialises git, and prints the make setup next steps.

CLI Flags

Flag	Meaning
[name]	Target directory / project name (prompted if omitted)
--ref <branch|tag>	Template ref to fetch (default: repo default branch)
--no-git	Skip git init + initial commit

STARTERPACK_TEMPLATE overrides the source repo (default github:dev-rvk/starter).

Because the template is fetched from GitHub at run time, you only republish this CLI when its own logic changes — template updates ship by pushing to the template repo.

Quick start

make setup      # install deps + tools, generate code
make deps-up    # start local PostgreSQL (Docker)
make migrate    # apply database migrations
make dev        # run everything concurrently (bootstrapping)

Tip

While make dev boots the entire stack in one terminal, it is highly recommended to run them separately in two windows/panes for clean log visibility:

• make client runs all JS applications under the Turborepo TUI.
• make server runs the Go backend API with clean, un-obscured stdout logging.

URL	App
http://localhost:3000	app — dashboard (Vite + TanStack Router)
http://localhost:3001	web — marketing site
http://localhost:3002	api — Go backend (Gin, hexagonal)
http://localhost:3003	email — React Email preview
http://localhost:6006	storybook — design system

Prerequisites: Bun ≥ 1.3, Go ≥ 1.24, GNU Make, and (optional) Docker for local PostgreSQL. make setup installs the Go CLIs (sqlc, swag) for you. Run make help to list every target.

Only Clerk (auth) and PostgreSQL are needed for the full experience — every other integration is a feature toggle that stays inert until its key is set. Without DATABASE_URL the API uses an in-memory store; without Clerk keys auth is bypassed in dev, so the stack always boots from a fresh clone.

Local dependencies (Docker)

Backing services run via Docker Compose. The flow is local ↔ hosted by URL: run a container locally and point the env var at localhost, or skip the container and point the same var at a managed provider — no code changes.

make deps-up        # start core services (postgres)
make deps-up-all    # also start redis + mailpit (opt-in profiles)
make deps-down      # stop (keep data)
make deps-reset     # stop and delete data volumes
make deps-logs      # tail logs

Service	Local (compose)	Hosted equivalent	Status
PostgreSQL	postgres :5433	Neon · Supabase · RDS	wired today
Redis	redis :6379 (profile cache)	Upstash · Elasticache	scaffold
Mailpit (SMTP)	mailpit :8025 UI (profile mail)	Resend (HTTP API)	scaffold

To go hosted, e.g. swap Postgres: stop the local one (or just ignore it) and set DATABASE_URL in apps/api/.env.local to your Neon/Supabase connection string.

Configure features

Every integration is a feature toggle — set its key to enable it, leave it blank to keep it off. Copy the templates first:

cp apps/api/.env.example apps/api/.env.local
cp apps/app/.env.example apps/app/.env.local
cp apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env.local

Feature	What it does	Get keys	Env var(s) → file
PostgreSQL (needed)	App database	make deps-up (local) or Neon	DATABASE_URL → apps/api/.env.local
Clerk (needed)	Authentication	clerk.com → API Keys	CLERK_SECRET_KEY → api · VITE_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY → app
Stripe	Payments (planned)	dashboard.stripe.com	STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET → api
Sentry	Error tracking	sentry.io	SENTRY_DSN → api · VITE_SENTRY_DSN → app
Resend	Transactional email	resend.com	RESEND_TOKEN, RESEND_FROM → api
Google Analytics	Web analytics (free tier)	GA4 property	VITE_GA_MEASUREMENT_ID → app/web
PostHog	Product analytics (self-host)	your PostHog instance	VITE_POSTHOG_KEY, VITE_POSTHOG_HOST → app/web

Minimum to boot: nothing — the API falls back to in-memory and auth is bypassed in dev. For the full experience, set DATABASE_URL + the two Clerk keys.

Removed from next-forge (re-add as packages if you need them): Arcjet (security), BetterStack (use Prometheus/Grafana later), BaseHub (CMS).

See starterpack-docs/setup.md for the full matrix and per-service detail.

Documentation

• starterpack-docs/setup.md — clone-to-running guide
• starterpack-docs/docs.md — every change vs. next-forge, tooling decisions, feature-toggle matrix
• skills/starterpack/ — Claude skill: architecture, packages, and customization references for this repo

Stack

• Frontend: Vite, TanStack Router, TanStack Query, Tailwind v4, shadcn/ui
• Backend: Go, hexagonal (ports & adapters), Gin, zerolog, pgx + sqlc, Atlas
• Auth: Clerk (graceful when unconfigured)
• Contract: Go OpenAPI (swag) → typed TS client (openapi-typescript + openapi-fetch)
• Tooling: Bun, Turborepo, a single Makefile entrypoint (make help)

Layout

apps/       api (Go) · app · web · email · storybook
packages/   api-client · auth · design-system · email · typescript-config

Common commands

make dev          # run Go API + all JS apps concurrently (bootstrapping)
make client       # run JS apps via turbo (TUI mode)
make server       # run the Go API backend (clean logs)
make build        # build all JS apps + the Go binary
make migrate      # apply Atlas migrations (needs DATABASE_URL)
make db-diff name=... # generate an Atlas migration
make db-apply     # apply Atlas migrations
make db-status    # show migration status
make db-reset     # teardown DB volume and run all migrations
make generate     # regenerate sqlc + OpenAPI + typed client
make lint         # check JS (ultracite) and vet Go
make lint-fix     # auto-fix JS/TS formatting and linting
make lint-api-fix # auto-fix Go linting and import formatting (golangci-lint)
make test         # bun test + go test
make help         # list every target