samchon/backend is a NestJS and Prisma template built around TDD

A template whose point is the order of work

samchon/backend is a template repository for a TypeScript backend server, built on the NestJS and Prisma stack with FP and TDD. The README is explicit that it has been prepared to educate and spread how to adapt functional programming in NestJS development, and to guide how to use three third party libraries in production, especially for test driven development with dramatic productivity enhancement. Those three libraries are typia, a runtime validator described as superfast, nestia, a set of NestJS helper libraries including SDK generation, and prisma-markdown, a Markdown generator of Prisma covering both an ERD and documentation. The project description calls it a template repository for backend projects, and the phrase is meant literally. It is a starting point with a specific shape, not a library you depend on, and the shape is the interesting part, because the same structure appears in two example backends, a simple bulletin board system and a shopping mall system, both in Korean only, plus fake iamport and fake toss payments servers.

Declare the API, generate the SDK, test, then implement

The development section lays out four phases, and the ordering is the whole idea. Phase A is definition only: design the Prisma schema file, build and share the ERD document with your collaborators, write the DTO structures, and declare the controller method only. Phase B is the software development kit, building the SDK from the declaration-only controller files, where the SDK supports a mockup simulator that boosts frontend development and is type safe so development is safer. Phase C is the test automation program, built earlier than the main program development, using the SDK library in the test program development, which the README labels as the TDD part. Phase D is the main program development, which comes last. The reason this works is that a declaration-only controller can be compiled and turned into a client SDK before the implementation exists, so the tests and the frontend can both be written against a stable interface. The generated SDK with a mock simulator is what lets a frontend developer build screens before the backend is finished.

The database schema is designed before the code

The first concrete step in the definition phase is the data model, and the tooling around it is more than a schema file. You design the DB architecture in the Prisma schema file under packages/backend/prisma/schema, and the README reminds you to write detailed descriptions on each table and property while you do it, because those comments are what the documentation tooling picks up. Once the schema is written, you build the ERD document through the pnpm build:prisma command, and the generated document lands in packages/backend/docs/ERD.md. The prisma-markdown package is what produces it. This ordering is deliberate, since the ERD is the artefact you share with the people who will review the data model, and the property descriptions end up in generated documentation rather than being typed twice. The example projects in the list follow the same structure, which is what makes them readable as worked examples of the template rather than as separate applications.

Setting up PostgreSQL, and a private package you must configure first

Two setup requirements come before the code runs. The first is PostgreSQL, and the template offers a script for it:

bash packages/backend/postgres.sh

The note says that if you have installed Docker, run the script above, and otherwise visit the PostgreSQL official site and install it manually. After that you run the pnpm schema command in the packages/backend directory, with the root account and password as arguments, and the README shows it as:

cd packages/backend
pnpm schema postgres root

The database schema for the backend system is constructed automatically. The second requirement is less obvious. The package.json requires the private npm module @ORGANIZATION, provided from GitHub, so to develop the backend you have to configure the .npmrc file, and the README links to the GitHub packages documentation to complete that configuration. This is a real obstacle for someone evaluating the template quickly, since a plain pnpm install will not resolve that dependency until the private package is published under your own organisation name.

Making it yours is a table of replacements

Specializing the template is described as changing some words, using an IDE replace in files function, and the README gives the table. ORGANIZATION becomes your account or corporation name, PROJECT becomes your own project name, AUTHOR becomes the author name, db_name becomes the database to connect, db_schema becomes the database schema to use, and db_account becomes the database account to use, explicitly not the root account. The repository URL also gets replaced with your own. After that there are two files to edit by hand, packages/backend/src/MyConfiguration.ts and .github/workflows/build.yml, where you change the constant values to suit your project. Then there is a list of markdown files to rewrite with your own project story, covering the issue templates for bug reports, feature requests and questions, the pull request template, the README, the code of conduct, the contributing guide and the licence file. The template ships with these as placeholders and the README is saying so, which is a courtesy to anyone who clones it.

A pnpm workspace with one script per concern

The repository root is a pnpm workspace, with pnpm-workspace.yaml and a pnpm-lock.yaml, and the root package.json is private with the placeholder name and version 0.1.0. Every script in it is a workspace-level delegation, which is a pattern worth copying. Build runs pnpm recursively with --if-present across packages, dev and start and test all target packages/backend specifically, and format and lint do the same recursive pass for the workspace. The package manager is pinned to pnpm 10.10.0, and the pnpm.onlyBuiltDependencies field allows build scripts for prisma and @prisma/engines, which is the modern pnpm behaviour where dependency build scripts are blocked by default. The tree also carries a config/ directory, a typos.toml for a spell checker, a .vscode/ directory, an assets/ directory and a .github/ directory with the workflows and issue templates. The GitHub Actions build badge in the README points at a build workflow, and the guide documents badge points at the Nestia documentation. The licence is MIT, the repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-10-19.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt samchon/backend as a reference structure or a starting point when you want a NestJS backend with generated SDKs, runtime validation and tests written before the implementation. Do not adopt it as an unedited production project, since the template ships with placeholder identifiers and a private package you must configure before anything installs. Verify first that you can reach the private npm package the template requires, that the PostgreSQL schema script runs against your instance, and that the placeholders listed in the specialization table have all been replaced before you start writing features.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. samchon/backend on GitHub