Freedom-stack NPM

Freedom Stack

A modern, type-safe web development stack using Astro, TypeScript, HTMX, Alpine.js, and more.

Quick Start

# Create a new project
npx create-freedom-stack my-app

# Navigate to the project
cd my-app

# Copy the environment file
cp .env.example .env

# Start the development server
npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:4321 to see your app.

What's Included

🚀 Astro - The web framework for content-driven websites
🎨 TailwindCSS + DaisyUI - Utility-first CSS
⚡ HTMX - High power tools for HTML
🗄️ Astro DB - Built-in database with type safety
🔒 Better Auth - Simple, secure authentication
🏃‍♂️ Alpine.js - Lightweight JavaScript framework

Freedom Stack • Full-Stack Starter Kit

An Astro-based full-stack starter kit that feels freeing, and is free. Make development fun again. See the demo site.

I wanted to provide a stack that's powerful like Ruby on Rails ("The One Person Framework"), but with the ease and "vanilla" web dev feel of Astro.

freedom stack

Learning Resources 📚

The Frontend Layer

If you want to learn more about the frontend layer, I recommend the Astro Web Framework Crash Course by freeCodeCamp.

The Interactivity Layer

If you want to learn more about Alpine.js, I recommend Learn Alpine.js on codecourse.

The Database Layer

If you want to learn more about the database layer, I recommend learning from High Performance SQLite course, sponsored by Turso.

The Philosophy Layer

A starter kit like this can save hours, days, or even weeks of development time. However, it's not enough just to have the baseline. You will need to have a philosophy around building a site or web app, so that you can make the most of the tooling and minimize wasting time. I recommend reading Getting Real by 37signals. It's free to read online. (While the book says a few choice words, it's a great, practical resource for building great software.)

Here's What's Included 🔋🔋🔋

Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. Parfaits have layers. And, Freedom Stack has layers!

UI Layer

Astro - A simple web metaframework.
Tailwind CSS - For styling.
Preline UI - Tailwind-based HTML components.
Daisy UI - For a Bootstrap-like UI CSS component library, built upon Tailwind.
Lucide Icons - For a beautiful icon library.

Interactivity Layer

TypeScript - For type safety.
AlpineJS - For state management and interactivity.
HTMX - For sending HTML partials/snippets over the wire.

Backend Data Layer

Astro DB - Astro DB is a fully managed SQL database that is fast, lightweight, and ridiculously easy-to-use.
Drizzle ORM - Use your database without having to know or worry about SQL syntax.
Better Auth - For authentication.

Bonus Layer

A well-prompted .cursorrules file for Cursor's AI IDE to be a friendly guide helping you using this stack easier.

Get Started 🚀

1. Setup Your Codebase

To create your own instance of this codebase, click the "Use this template" button on the repo's home page.

Then, clone your new repo to your local machine.

2. Setup Your Database

We use Turso for the fully-managed libSQL database. Follow these instructions to get started with Turso.

Want to visualize your data through a GUI?

3. Set Environment Variables

Let's create the .env file by copying the .env.example file.

cp .env.example .env

This project uses the following environment variables:

Variable	Description	Required	More Info
`ASTRO_DB_REMOTE_URL`	The connection URL to your libSQL server	Required	Astro DB
`ASTRO_DB_APP_TOKEN`	The auth token to your libSQL server	Required	Astro DB
`BETTER_AUTH_SECRET`	The secret for Better Auth authentication	Required	Better Auth
`BETTER_AUTH_URL`	The URL for Better Auth authentication	Required	Better Auth

Make sure to set these variables in your environment or .env file before running the application.

5. Run the Development Server

Install the dependencies.

npm install

Then, run the development server.

npm run dev

Viola! Your development server is now running on localhost:4321.

6. Have fun!

Create because you love creating. Make development fun again!

Host Your Project ☁️

Host your site with Netlify in under a minute.

First, you must login to Netlify:

npm run host:login

Then, you can deploy your site with:

npm run host:deploy

!IMPORTANT Remember to set the environment variables in Netlify so that it builds successfully.

Learn more about hosting Astro sites on Netlify.

Vision ❤️

I dream of a lightweight, simple web development stack that invokes a fun web experience at the cheapest possible maintainance, backend, and server cost. As close to free as possible.

Core Principles

Approachable — I want those new to web development to feel comfortable using this stack. Things like database management should feel intuitive. Remove barriers of traditional JavaScript frameworks, such as excessive boilerplate code or intense state management. Go back to the basics of web development. (While this is not vanilla, the dev experience will feel very natural.)
Flow-able — Use an HTML-first approach, where almost all of the work is done on the DOM layer: styling, structuring, and interactivity. An opinionated stack helps you avoid analysis paralysis of trying to decide what tooling to pick or how to put things together. Instead, spend your thinking time building. This simple stack helps you focus and get in the flow of code faster. Fast setup. Fast building. Fast shipping.
Pocket-friendly — Using this stack will be financially maintainable to anyone, especially indie hackers and those creating startup sites / web apps.

Showcase 🏆

Have a project that uses Freedom Stack? Open a PR to add it to the list!

Available Scripts ⚡

Command	Description
`npm run dev`	Start the development server
`npm run dev:host`	Start development server accessible from network
`npm run build`	Build the production site with remote database
`npm run preview`	Preview the built site locally
`npm run format`	Format all files using Prettier
`npm run packages:update`	Update all packages to their latest versions
`npm run db:update-schemas`	Push database schema changes to remote database