Two+ things I do every time I set up a new node project

#node #javascript

1. Early first commit

Committing regularly is a very good habit. And there is one point in time where it is especially helpful, right after you created a new project and BEFORE you type the first character in your project.

For example, right after creating a new Vite project (or bootstrapping with any other template):

git init
git add --all
git commit -m "blank vite react/typescript project"

This way you can easily spot what you have done and what has been created by create vite@latest for example.

2. Create a .nvmrc file

Working with different versions of Node on the same project might cause unnecessary trouble. So the second thing I do after setting up a node project is to create a .nvmrc file in the project root.

node --version > .nvmrc
git add .nvmrc
git commit -m "created .nvmrc file"

This will create a file named .nvmrc with this content:

v18.16.0

Having done that, any developer can just run nvm use in the project folder and nvm will automatically switch to the correct version of node.

💡Pro Tip You can set up a script that will automatically call nvm use whenever you enter a directory that contains an .nvmrc

(3. Install node's types)

If working with TypeScript I also install the types package for node. Sooner or later you will need this.

npm install @types/node -D

(4. Add a `jsconfig.json`)

If you are going to use an editor that uses LSP (VSCode, Sublime Text, etc.) make sure you have a jsconfig.json (or tsconfig.json) file for your project. Not having this file might bring you into trouble.