scaffold

Stack Scaffold

Workflow skill for greenfielding a Next.js + Tailwind v4 + tRPC + TanStack Query + Neon/Drizzle + Vercel app, with optional Clerk auth — driven by product intake so the foundation matches what you are building.

Read this hub first, run product intake, then open only the spokes for your profile.

Mission

Deliver a fully configured repo matching intake: core stack (Phases 0–8) plus every selected add-on installed and wired (Phase 9). No product business logic beyond integration demos/stubs. Phase 10 verification (typecheck, lint, test, build, smoke tests) must pass before the skill is complete.

Non-negotiables

1. Product intake first — ask what you are building; record scaffold profile before create-next-app. See intake-product-profiles.md.
2. App Router only — no Pages Router for new apps.
3. Package manager — default pnpm; pin Node 22.x and pnpm >=10 <11 unless intake says npm.
4. Environment — lib/env.ts (Zod); secrets in .env.local; committed .env.example. No raw process.env in lib/ elsewhere.
5. Server boundary — DB and tRPC routers are server-only; import "server-only" where appropriate.
6. Safe tRPC errors — AppError + Zod mapped in formatter; never leak stacks.
7. Clerk on Next 16 — proxy.ts + clerkMiddleware when auth is enabled.
8. Lazy database — getDb() must not throw at import time when DATABASE_URL is missing.
9. Scaffold profile in README — record profile ID, stack choices, installed add-ons, and production-habits.md checklist.
10. Intake add-ons are installed — when add-ons are not none, run Phase 9 (phase-integrations.md); do not leave them README-only.

When to use

• Starting a SaaS dashboard, internal tool, or API-first Next app
• Adding tRPC + Drizzle + Clerk to an empty Next.js repo
• User invokes /scaffold

When not to use

• Marketing-only → the web-marketing-landing skill
• Supabase / Prisma-first → custom plan (not default spokes)
• Expo / mobile-only → separate skill
• macOS / non-Next → out of scope

Intake router

Profile	Summary
saas-dashboard	Default — Clerk, full stack, shadcn, foundations
internal-tool	Full stack; simpler shell; optional dev auth bypass
api-first	tRPC + DB; minimal UI; auth optional
marketing-only	Redirect web-marketing-landing
extend-existing	Gap-fill only

Details: intake-product-profiles.md.

Phase bundle

Execute in order. Details: phases-greenfield.md.

Step	Spoke
0	intake-product-profiles.md
1–2	stack-and-tooling.md
2b	foundation-env-and-errors.md
2c	foundation-testing.md
3	foundation-ui.md + file-tree-and-conventions.md
4	database-neon-drizzle.md
5	trpc-and-query.md
6	auth-clerk-optional.md (if auth)
7	App shell — file-tree-and-conventions.md
8	vercel-and-env.md
9	phase-integrations.md + ai-sdk-and-integrations.md — skip only if add-ons = none
10	verification-checklist.md
post	production-habits.md — document remaining launch habits in README

Skip phases per profile (e.g. api-first skips shadcn and often auth). Never skip Phase 9 when intake lists add-ons.

After Phase 10, recommend /review via the autoreview skill (/review).

Spoke index

File	Contents
intake-product-profiles.md	Product question, profiles, intake template
intake-and-variants.md	Extend-existing, monorepo, out-of-scope
stack-and-tooling.md	Versions, create-next-app, scripts
foundation-env-and-errors.md	lib/env.ts, lib/errors.ts
foundation-testing.md	Vitest
foundation-ui.md	shadcn vs minimal
phases-greenfield.md	Phases 0–10
phase-integrations.md	Phase 9 — install intake add-ons
file-tree-and-conventions.md	Canonical tree
database-neon-drizzle.md	Neon, Drizzle
trpc-and-query.md	tRPC server, client, route
auth-clerk-optional.md	Clerk
vercel-and-env.md	Deploy
verification-checklist.md	Build gate
production-habits.md	Post-scaffold checklist
ai-sdk-and-integrations.md	AI SDK streaming, Resend, Stripe, provider/env patterns

Related skills

• the autoreview skill (/review)
• the web-marketing-landing skill
• clerk-auth (global) — deep Clerk patterns

Default stack

Layer	Package / tool
Runtime	Node 22.x, pnpm 10.x
Framework	Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript 5.9+
CSS	Tailwind CSS 4
API	tRPC 11, @trpc/tanstack-react-query, TanStack Query 5, superjson, zod
Testing	Vitest
Auth	@clerk/nextjs 7 (profile-dependent)
DB	Neon, Drizzle
Deploy	Vercel
AI (intake)	ai, @ai-sdk/react — Phase 9
Email / billing (intake)	resend, stripe — Phase 9
Observability (intake)	@sentry/nextjs, posthog-js — Phase 9

Verify latest minors on npm when scaffolding.