CLI

stack <command> [options]

Command	Does
stack list	List the templates
stack info <template>	Show a template’s features and defaults
stack new <template> <dir>	Generate a project
stack extract <template>	Refresh a template from its source repo (maintainers)
stack doctor [template]	Validate templates against their manifests
stack version, --version, -v	Print the stacks version
stack help, --help, -h, no command	Print usage

Errors print in red to stderr and exit with status 1. Colour is used only when stdout is a terminal and NO_COLOR is unset.

Unknown options are ignored

Options are parsed leniently: a misspelt flag (--withh temporal) is silently ignored rather than rejected. Check the features line in the output of stack new (or use --dry-run first) to confirm what you got.

stack list

Prints every template with its title, description and feature count, and marks any template whose files/ hasn’t been extracted yet.

stack info

stack info nest-api

Groups the template’s features into Always included (core), On by default (drop with --without) and Opt-in (add with --with), then lists which features require which.

stack new

stack new <template> <dir> [options]

Option	Default	Effect
--name <name>	the basename of <dir>	Project name, always kebab-cased (My App and myApp both become my-app)
--scope <scope>	the name	npm scope, without @; used for @scope/… package names in the monorepo
--description <text>	"<Name> service"	Package description
--port <n>	the template’s default	Default listen port: nest-api 5000, react-app and react-monorepo 3000. Not validated: a non-number ends up as NaN
--author <text>	empty	Author field (not shown in --help)
--with a,b		Add opt-in features. Comma lists and repeats both work
--without a,b		Drop default features
--all		Every feature; --without still applies after it
--dry-run		Do everything in memory and print the report; write nothing, run no hooks
--force		Write into a non-empty directory. Overwrites files at the same paths; deletes nothing
--no-hooks		Skip install, format, Prisma generate and the first commit
--strict		Make any hook failure fatal (for CI)

The report shows what you got:

  NestJS API → /home/you/shop/api
  name      shop-api
  scope     @shop-api
  features  auth, cache, ci, config, docker, http-client, mail, media, …
  omitted   feature-flags, graphql, notifications, realtime, temporal
  files     134 written, 61 dropped, 13 package keys pruned

Then the hooks run, and the template’s next steps are printed.

Errors:

Message	Cause
Target … is not empty. Pass --force to write into it anyway.	<dir> exists and has files (not checked with --dry-run)
Unknown feature "x" for template "t". Known: …	A --with/--without name the template doesn’t declare
Feature "x" is core to template "t" and cannot be removed.	--without on a core feature
Cannot disable "b": feature "a" requires it. Drop "a" too, or keep "b".	You dropped a requirement of a feature you kept
Hook failed: <label> (exit N)	Only with --strict: a hook failed. The files are already written
Template "t" has no files/ directory yet. Run: stack extract t	A template that was never extracted

stack extract

stack extract <template> [--source <dir>] [--overwrite] [--prune] [--dry-run]

For maintainers: copies a template’s files from the live source repo it was built from. Runs only from a git checkout. See Refreshing templates.

stack doctor

stack doctor            # versions + every template
stack doctor nest-api   # one template, no version check

Checks that every template is internally consistent: marker names are declared, feature globs match files, and every selection of features still produces balanced code, valid JSON and resolvable imports. See Checks: doctor and CI. Exits 1 on any problem.