create-dig-app

Scaffold a wallet-wired, deployable DIG Network app — free, no mint. The JS front door for building dapps, frontends, and NFT collections on Chia.

Prefer Rust? digstore new scaffolds the same starters from the CLI — create-dig-app and digstore new are the two front doors to the same templates (the static-site / vite-react / … ids match).

npm create dig-app@latest my-app -- --template vite-react

# …or scaffold the TypeScript variant:
npm create dig-app@latest my-app -- --template vite-react --typescript

…or run it with no arguments for an interactive picker (it asks for the name, template, and JavaScript-or-TypeScript):

npm create dig-app@latest

create-dig-app writes a runnable starter project: a dig.toml manifest, a real app you can build, and (for the wallet templates) @dignetwork/dig-sdk already wired in. Then it prints your next steps. It has no runtime dependencies and works on Node 18+.

JavaScript or TypeScript

Every buildable template ships in both JavaScript (default) and TypeScript. Pick TypeScript with --typescript (--ts, or --lang ts), or choose it in the interactive prompt. The TypeScript variant adds a tsconfig.json, .ts/.tsx sources, the typescript (and React @types/*) devDeps, an env shim (vite-env.d.ts / next-env.d.ts), and a build that type-checks (tsc --noEmit && vite build, or Next's built-in checking). Run npm run typecheck any time.

The wallet templates use @dignetwork/dig-sdk's shipped types — ChiaProvider, ConnectOptions, and friends are fully typed straight from the package's .d.ts, so no @types/* shim is needed for the SDK.

The static-site template has no build step (it just copies src/ → public/), so it has no TypeScript variant — requesting --typescript for it scaffolds JavaScript and tells you so. (The legacy id static still works as a hidden alias.)

Free until publish

Scaffolding, building, and previewing cost nothing. Creating a project does not mint, touch the chain, or spend any funds. You spend $DIG only when you publish a capsule with digstore deploy. Iterate for free, publish when it's ready.

digstore dev      # preview on the real chia:// read path — FREE, no chain, no spend
digstore deploy   # publish a capsule when you're ready (the only step that spends $DIG)

A published app lives on DIGHUb at hub.dig.net/stores/<id>, and you can optionally register a human name so it is also reachable at <your-name>.on.dig.net (a pay-to-register domain).

Templates

Template	What you get	Wallet wired	Languages
static-site	Plain HTML/CSS/JS — zero build step, the lightest way to ship a site.	—	JS
vite-react	A React SPA built with Vite — the fast default for an app frontend.	—	JS · TS
next-static	Next.js exported to static files (output: 'export'), deployable as a capsule.	—	JS · TS
nft-drop	A wallet-connected NFT mint page (ChiaProvider + the canonical CHIP-0035 spend builder).	yes	JS · TS
nft-collection	An NFT collection workspace — art + CHIP-0007 metadata/license tooling for digstore collection mint.	yes	JS
dapp-window-chia	A dapp wired to a Chia wallet via ChiaProvider — injected window.chia, or Sage over WalletConnect.	yes	JS · TS

The nft-collection template is a collection workspace, not a single page: drop your art in images/, describe the set once in collection.json, and its dependency-free tooling (npm run generate / npm run validate) emits the canonical CHIP-0007 metadata + the items.json manifest that digstore collection mint consumes — byte-for-byte the same shape the DIGHUb NFT studio mints, so a collection built here mints cleanly either way. New to minting on DIG? See https://docs.dig.net/docs/audiences/nft-developers.

The wallet templates wire @dignetwork/dig-sdk: a Chia wallet your dapp gets for free. ChiaProvider.connect({ mode: "auto" }) prefers the injected DIG Browser wallet (window.chia) and falls back to WalletConnect → Sage (the main Chia wallet) so a scaffolded dapp connects in a normal browser too — not just the DIG Browser. NFT minting uses the SDK's /spend builder — spends are never hand-rolled. Nothing is minted, signed, or spent at scaffold time — minting is an explicit, wallet-signed action a user triggers later.

Wallet connection — injected DIG Browser or Sage (WalletConnect)

The same Connect button works in both worlds, in both JS and TS:

	Injected (DIG Browser / extension)	WalletConnect → Sage (any browser)
When	window.chia is present	no injected wallet found
Setup	none	set a free projectId (env)
UX	instant connect	pairing link / QR to approve in Sage

To enable the Sage fallback, the wallet templates ship @walletconnect/sign-client (the SDK's optional WC peer dep) as a dependency and read a project id from the build-time env:

cp .env.example .env
# .env  — get a free id at https://cloud.reown.com (Reown / WalletConnect Cloud)
VITE_WALLETCONNECT_PROJECT_ID=your_project_id_here

Leave it blank to support only the injected DIG Browser wallet (the app still builds and runs). The project id is never committed — only the placeholder .env.example is tracked. (The SDK throws an actionable error if WalletConnect is used without the peer dep / project id; the scaffolded setup satisfies it.)

Usage

# explicit template + name (JavaScript)
npm create dig-app@latest my-app -- --template <template>

# TypeScript variant
npm create dig-app@latest my-app -- --template <template> --typescript

# interactive (prompts for name + template + JS/TS)
npm create dig-app@latest

# help / templates list
npm create dig-app@latest -- --help

Option	Description
<name>	Project directory + npm package name (slugified to be npm-safe).
-t, --template <t>	One of: static-site, vite-react, next-static, nft-drop, nft-collection, dapp-window-chia.
--typescript, --ts	Scaffold the TypeScript variant (where available).
--javascript, --js	Scaffold the JavaScript variant (the default).
--lang <js|ts>	Same as the language flags above.
--json	Emit one structured result object on stdout; route human prose to stderr (for scripts/agents).
--list-templates	List the available templates (pair with --json for machine-readable output).
--help-json	Print the full flag/template tree + exit-code table as JSON.
-h, --help	Show usage and the template list.
-v, --version	Print the version.

The -- before the flags is npm's npm create argument separator — it forwards the rest to create-dig-app. With npx create-dig-app / pnpm create dig-app you can drop it.

What it writes

Every project includes:

• dig.toml — the project manifest digstore (and the DIG SDK adapters) read: output-dir, build-command, and the default remote. This is the single source of truth digstore deploy and the GitHub Action use.
• README.md — the develop -> preview (free) -> publish flow for that template.
• a real app that npm installs and builds to the template's output dir.
• for the TypeScript variant: a tsconfig.json, .ts/.tsx sources, the typescript (and React @types/*) devDeps, and an env shim — the project type-checks and builds out of the box.

Deploy

Preview locally for free with digstore dev, publish with digstore deploy, and wire push-to-deploy in CI with the GitHub deploy Action so every push to main publishes a new capsule: Deploy from GitHub Actions. Your app is then live on DIGHUb (hub.dig.net/stores/<id>) and, if you register one, at <your-name>.on.dig.net.

Scripting / agents (machine-readable output)

create-dig-app is scriptable end-to-end. Pass --json to get a single structured object on stdout (all human prose is routed to stderr, and no interactive prompts are shown — so an agent can scaffold unattended):

# Scaffold and capture the result as JSON.
npx create-dig-app my-app --template vite-react --json
# → {"schemaVersion":1,"ok":true,"result":{"appName":"my-app","template":"vite-react",
#     "lang":"js","requestedLang":"js","targetDir":"…/my-app","nextSteps":[…]}}

# Discover the templates as data, or the full invocation contract:
npx create-dig-app --list-templates --json
npx create-dig-app --help-json        # flags + template tree + the exit-code table

On failure, --json emits a structured error envelope with a stable, UPPER_SNAKE code (never derived from the prose), the matching exit code, and an actionable hint:

{"schemaVersion":1,"ok":false,"error":{"code":"UNKNOWN_TEMPLATE","exit_code":3,
  "message":"Unknown template \"svelte\". Available: …","hint":"Run with --list-templates …",
  "template":"svelte"}}

Exit codes

A differentiated, stable exit-code table (also emitted by --help-json) so a script can branch on the kind of failure:

Code	Meaning
0	success
1	unexpected internal error
2	usage error (bad/unknown option or malformed arguments)
3	unknown template id
4	target directory exists and is not empty
5	required arguments missing in non-interactive mode
6	bundled template files are missing (packaging bug)
7	app name is not usable

Develop on create-dig-app

node --test test/         # run the test suite (no install needed)
npm ci && npm run coverage # run the suite under coverage with the ≥80% gate (installs c8)
node bin/create-dig-app.js my-app --template static-site   # run the CLI locally

The runtime package has zero dependencies — node --test test/ runs the whole suite on the standard library alone. The only dev dependency is c8, the coverage runner: npm run coverage runs the same tests and fails if line/branch/function/statement coverage drops below 80% (thresholds live in .c8rc.json, scoped to lib/ + bin/). CI enforces this gate on every push and PR across the Node 18 and 20 matrix.

License

MIT