Generate React CLI

11.0.4 · active · verified Wed Apr 22

generate-react-cli is a command-line interface tool designed to streamline the creation of React components, aiming to boost developer productivity by automating repetitive setup tasks. The current stable version is 11.0.4, released in April 2026. This package maintains a somewhat frequent release cadence, with multiple minor and patch releases occurring monthly or bi-monthly, and major versions typically updating Node.js requirements or tooling support. Its key differentiators include an initial interactive configuration that generates a `generate-react-cli.json` file, allowing project-specific defaults for TypeScript usage, CSS modules, various CSS preprocessors (like SCSS), and testing libraries (React Testing Library, Vitest, or no tests). It offers extensive customization through command-line options and support for custom component types, templates, and file structures, enabling developers to quickly scaffold components, pages, or layouts according to their project's conventions.

Common errors

```
Error: You are running Node.js <22.
```
cause The installed version of Node.js does not meet the minimum requirement (Node.js 22 or higher) for `generate-react-cli` versions 10.0.0 and above.

fix Upgrade your Node.js environment to version 22 or newer. Using a Node Version Manager (nvm) is recommended for easy switching: `nvm install 22 && nvm use 22`.
```
Error: generate-react-cli.json: No such file or directory
```
cause The configuration file `generate-react-cli.json` is missing from your project root, or the CLI has not been run previously to create it automatically.

fix Run `npx generate-react-cli component MyComponent` once. This command will interactively prompt you to set up initial configurations and then create the `generate-react-cli.json` file in your project root.
```
Cannot find module 'YourComponentName.module.css' (or similar style import error)
```
cause The generated component is attempting to import a CSS module, but either the `usesCssModule` setting in `generate-react-cli.json` or the `--withStyle` option was incorrectly configured for your project's styling setup, or the style file was not generated as expected.

fix Verify the `usesCssModule` and `cssPreprocessor` settings in your `generate-react-cli.json`. Ensure `withStyle` is `true` if you expect a style file. Adjust your project's Webpack/Vite configuration to correctly handle CSS modules if necessary.

Warnings

breaking Minimum Node.js version required to run `generate-react-cli` has been raised to 22.0 or higher.
Fix: Upgrade your Node.js installation to version 22 or newer to use versions 10.0.0 and above of this CLI tool. You can use nvm to manage multiple Node.js versions.
breaking Support for the Enzyme testing library has been removed. Projects using Enzyme for tests will need to migrate to Testing Library or Vitest.
Fix: Update your `generate-react-cli.json` configuration to use 'Testing Library', 'Vitest', or 'None' for the `testLibrary` option. Migrate any existing Enzyme tests to the new framework as needed.
gotcha The CLI generates a `generate-react-cli.json` configuration file in your project root on its first run. This file dictates default settings for component generation.
Fix: Review the generated `generate-react-cli.json` to customize default paths, styling, and testing preferences according to your project's conventions. These defaults can always be overridden with command-line options for specific generations.

Install

npm install generate-react-cli npm
yarn add generate-react-cli yarn
pnpm add generate-react-cli pnpm

Quickstart

Demonstrates how to generate a new React component using `npx`, prompting for initial configuration if run for the first time, and showing how to override default settings via command-line options.

npx generate-react-cli component Box

# The first command will prompt you to configure the CLI, creating a
# 'generate-react-cli.json' file. Then it generates a 'Box' component.

# Subsequent runs can override configured defaults using options:
npx generate-react-cli component Button --withTest=false --withStory=true

# For global installation (less recommended for CI/CD environments):
npm i -g generate-react-cli
generate-react component Navbar

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