Create the Project

This chapter creates a new Holo-JS app, starts the development server, and confirms the generated project structure.

What you will build

• a new Holo-JS project
• a selected host framework
• the first app directories users will edit
• a running development server

Create the app

npm

npm create holo-js@latest blog-app
cd blog-app
npm run dev

pnpm

pnpm create holo-js@latest blog-app
cd blog-app
pnpm dev

Yarn

yarn create holo-js blog-app
cd blog-app
yarn dev

Bun

bun create holo-js blog-app
cd blog-app
bun run dev

For this learning path, choose:

• Next.js, Nuxt, or SvelteKit for the host framework
• SQLite for the first database
• local storage for the first storage disk
• validation, forms, auth, authorization, storage, media, notifications, broadcast, realtime, queue, and cache when prompted for optional packages

Generated structure

After scaffolding, the important app directories are:

config/
server/db/
server/models/
server/policies/
server/events/
server/listeners/
server/jobs/
server/mail/
storage/

The host framework still owns routes, rendering, and SSR. Holo owns backend runtime services, configuration, database access, models, queues, events, storage, mail, and related server-side features.

Checkpoint

Open the app in the browser and confirm the starter page loads.

You are ready for the next chapter when:

• the dev server is running without errors
• the browser shows the app
• the project has config/, server/, and storage/ directories

Next step

The next chapter creates the blog database tables.

Related reference

• Installation
• Configuration
• Directory Structure
• Runtime Services