The Three.js TypeScript Boilerplate is one cube and a set of branch demos

A green wireframe cube and OrbitControls

The boilerplate is described in one sentence in the overview section: when run, it shows a green wireframe rotating cube, with OrbitControls included. That is the whole scene. The repository is not a framework and not an engine wrapper, it is a starting configuration for Three.js work written in TypeScript, and the README is direct about its role, calling it supplementary to the author's ThreeJS and TypeScript courses on Udemy and YouTube, and saying it is only just the beginning of what you will create. The audience, then, is a developer at the very start of a Three.js project, or a student following the courses. The example build is published online, so you can see the result before installing anything, and the screenshot in the docs directory shows the same cube in an editor.

webpack-dev-server for development, Express for production

The build setup is where the reusable value sits. Development runs through webpack-dev-server, and production is NodeJS with Express serving the built output, and the README states that both the server and the client projects are written in TypeScript. The package manifest shows the four scripts that make this work. `dev` runs webpack serve against a development config, `build` runs webpack against a production config, `start` runs the compiled server from `dist/server/server.js`, and `test` is the npm placeholder that echoes an error and exits, meaning there is no test suite. The dev dependencies pin the versions: webpack 5, webpack-cli 7, webpack-dev-server 6, ts-loader 9, typescript 6.0.3, three 0.185.1 with matching @types/three, and Express 5. The repository layout is minimal, with `src/`, `dist/`, `docs/`, a `package.json` and a `.prettierrc`.

Getting it running in five commands

The installation section is a numbered list, and it takes less than a minute if you already have Node. First clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/Sean-Bradley/Three.js-TypeScript-Boilerplate.git

Then change into the folder.

cd Three.js-TypeScript-Boilerplate

TypeScript is installed globally.

npm install -g typescript

Then the dependencies.

npm install

And the dev server.

npm run dev

After that you open http://127.0.0.1:8080 and you should see a rotating green wireframe cube that you can rotate further with your mouse. The last step of the documented path is to open the project in VSCode with `code .`. The order matters in one small way: the global TypeScript install is listed before `npm install`, so if the project is opened in an editor before the dependencies are in place, the editor will not have the type definitions.

Ten branches, each adding exactly one thing

The most distinctive feature of this repository is that the interesting code lives on branches rather than on master. The default master branch does not include Stats.js, Dat.GUI or Socket.IO, and each branch adds one capability with its own install and dev commands. The `stats` branch adds the Stats.js panel. The `statsgui` branch adds the Stats and Dat.GUI panels. The `socketio` branch adds Socket.IO, and the README explains what that gives you: open two or more browsers, move the cube in one and you see it mirror itself in the others, with each browser controlling its own cube. The `cannonjs` branch adds the physics engine. The `webcam` branch uses your webcam as a texture. The `bsc5` branch shows the BSC5 Bright Star Catalog data with constellations. The `ballgame` branch is a multiplayer game built on Threejs, SocketIO and server side Cannonjs. The `annotations` branch demonstrates annotations. The `csg` branch demonstrates Constructive Solid Geometry. And the `webxr` branch demonstrates WebXR.

A course repository, and what that means for adoption

The README's own framing is worth taking seriously before you fork it. This boilerplate was created as a sub project of the author's ThreeJS and TypeScript Course, and the section on games created from it lists Straight Car, Ball-VR and First Car Shooter, each with a demo URL and a separate GitHub repository. So the intended lifecycle is that you take the boilerplate, build something else in it, and end up with a different repository. There is also a note asking readers to check the author's TypeScript books to support the projects. None of that is a criticism of the code, it is a description of what the project is: a course companion and a set of focused demonstrations, not a maintained framework with a release cadence. The repository has no GitHub releases, the version in the manifest is 1.0.0, and the last push was on 2026-07-22. If you are evaluating it as infrastructure rather than as a starting point, that is the important context.

Where this boilerplate stops and a real project starts

The honest limitation is that a boilerplate stops exactly where your project becomes interesting, and this one is small enough that you will hit that quickly. There is no asset pipeline beyond what webpack gives you, no loading screen, no state management, no scene graph helper, no build for mobile, and no test suite at all, since the test script is the npm placeholder. The demos live on separate branches rather than in the main tree, which means there is no way to compose them: you cannot have the WebXR branch and the Cannon.js branch at once, because each is a checkout of the same repository. So a team that wants physics and multiplayer together starts by merging two branches by hand. The other limit is the licensing of what surrounds the code. The manifest declares the package licence as ISC while the repository carries a LICENSE file, and the bundled libraries have their own terms, so check what you are shipping if you reuse assets.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt this boilerplate if you are starting a Three.js project in TypeScript and want a working dev and production setup rather than a blank page. Skip it if you already have a build pipeline, since the value is in the configuration rather than the code, and skip it if you are looking for a production framework, because the repository describes itself as the beginning of what you will create. Before you commit, pick the branch that matches your goal and run the documented commands on it, because the extra libraries are only present on their own branches and not on master.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. Sean-Bradley/Three.js-TypeScript-Boilerplate on GitHub