Production-Grade Node/Express REST API Scaffold
Overview
An internal, production-oriented Node.js/Express REST API scaffold, extended from the well-known node-express-boilerplate, that bundles authentication, validation, security hardening, testing, containerization, and deployment so new backend services start from a solid, consistent baseline.
Why It Exists
Spinning up a new API repeatedly means re-implementing the same essentials: JWT auth, input validation, rate limiting, logging, API docs, tests, and Docker setup. This scaffold standardizes those decisions and adds the studio’s own infrastructure conventions (multi-environment Docker Compose, PM2, AWS Param Store, Firebase) so teams skip the plumbing and ship features.
What We Built
A comprehensive Express + Mongoose codebase with Passport JWT authentication, Joi request validation, and a stack of security middleware (Helmet, express-mongo-sanitize, xss-clean, express-rate-limit, CORS). It ships Swagger API docs (swagger-jsdoc + swagger-ui-express), Winston/Morgan logging, file uploads (Multer, Sharp, express-fileupload), email (Nodemailer), scheduled jobs (node-cron), and caching (node-cache). Operationally it includes per-environment Docker Compose files (dev/prod/test), a Dockerfile, a PM2 ecosystem config, a migrate.js migration script, AWS SDK + Param Store integration, and Firebase Admin with a functions/ directory. Quality tooling spans Jest unit/integration tests, ESLint (Airbnb + security plugin), Prettier, Husky, and lint-staged, plus written docs (API_ENDPOINTS, AUTH, DATABASE_METHODS, MONGODB_DATA_LAYER).
Technologies & Approach
Node.js/Express with Mongoose over MongoDB, hardened with the standard Express security middleware suite and documented via Swagger. The deployment story is container-first (Docker Compose per environment) with PM2 for process management and AWS Param Store for configuration, reflecting how the studio actually runs services.
Outcome / Impact
Provides a battle-tested, security-conscious starting point that has been maintained and evolved across multiple years, cutting the time to stand up a new production API and enforcing consistent auth, validation, and ops practices across projects.
Capabilities Demonstrated
- Production-ready REST API scaffolding (Express + Mongoose)
- JWT authentication, Joi validation, and layered security middleware
- Auto-generated Swagger API documentation
- Containerized, multi-environment deployment (Docker Compose, PM2)
- Cloud integration (AWS Param Store, Firebase Admin/Functions)
- Full test/lint/CI tooling baked in