frontend-webpack-boilerplate: the headline says zero dependencies and the manifest names thirty two
Simple starter webpack 5 project template supporting SASS/PostCSS, Babel ES7, browser syncing, code linting. Easy project setup having multiple features and developer friendly tools.
At a glance
- What is it?
- A webpack 5 starter template from Athlon Technology, distributed as release archives rather than clones, with a documented feature list that has drifted from its own package.json. The Babel major, two linter filenames and the webpack packages themselves all disagree with the prose.
- Who is it for?
- Use this template if you want a multi-page webpack setup with SASS, PostCSS, image optimisation and linters already wired, and if you are willing to reconcile the documentation with package.json on your first hour. Four checks before you commit to it.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 5 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly HTML, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on October 8, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
The headline claim is 0 dependencies, the manifest names 32
The first bullet in the features list reads 0 dependencies, in bold. The package manifest underneath it opens directly into devDependencies, with no runtime dependencies block at all, and names 32 packages from @babel/core through terser-webpack-plugin. Both statements can be true at once, since a template ships nothing to its consumers at runtime, but the reader who takes the headline at face value has no idea a build this size is coming. The named set includes the loaders and the tooling rather than the bundler itself: babel-loader, css-loader, postcss-loader and sass-loader, plus clean-webpack-plugin, copy-webpack-plugin, html-webpack-plugin, mini-css-extract-plugin, css-minimizer-webpack-plugin and terser-webpack-plugin.
webpack, webpack-dev-server and the analyzer are not in the named list
Three packages the features list advertises as configured do not appear among the named dependency entries. Webpack 5 is called the latest JavaScript module bundler in the list. The Webpack Dev Server plugin is described as configured and ready to use for faster local development. The bundle analyzer is described as an integration for visualising the size of the output files with an interactive zoomable treemap. None of webpack, webpack-dev-server or webpack-bundle-analyzer appears in the manifest entries. Either they arrive through the archive's own lockfile or they are meant to be added by hand, and the visible text does not say which. It also does not list an npm script for the analyzer, so the treemap has no documented way to be opened.
Two of the three documented config filenames are not at the root
The top level of the repository holds .babelrc, .editorconfig, .prettierrc, .stylelintrc.json, eslint.config.mjs, postcss.config.js, webpack.config.js and a configuration/ directory. The prose points at two files that are not in that list. The SASS and PostCSS syntax checker is described as configurable through a .sasslintrc file, with options to be found in the stylelint documentation, which pairs a linter name that predates the tool with a filename that is not present; the real file is .stylelintrc.json. The JavaScript checker is described as configured in .eslint.config.mjs, with a leading dot, while the file on disk is eslint.config.mjs without one. The same block carries three spelling slips: syntax cheker, developmentment server and availalbe options.
The text promises Babel 7 while the manifest asks for Babel 8
One bullet names Latest Babel 7 (@babel/core) as the JavaScript compiler. The manifest pins @babel/core at ^8.0.1 and @babel/preset-env at ^8.0.2, which is the next major line. The repository description calls it Babel ES7 support and the manifest description calls it babel ES6/7 support, so the prose settles on 7 three times and the file that actually installs settles on 8. Anyone reading the features list to work out whether a plugin or a loader they already use will still apply has to trust the manifest instead, because that is what npm resolves. The target browsers are set separately, in a browserslist array in the same manifest, where the shipped values are last 2 versions and greater than 5 percent, and both autoprefixer and babel-preset-env read from that array.
Installation is a release archive, and npm ci is the only command shown
Setup does not begin with a clone. The three steps are to choose and download the latest template release, extract the archive to a new directory, rename it to the project name, and then install dependencies with npm's clean install command:
$ npm ciA note allows npm install as a fallback for cases where npm ci raises a system error because of platform incompatibilities, which is a real escape hatch for locked dependencies on an unusual platform and also a way to end up with a tree the lockfile did not describe. The runtime requirement is printed as two lines: node at >=22.15.0, and npm. That floor is higher than the Node version most continuous integration images ship, and it is stated once, in a two-item requirements list, with no note about what breaks below it.
Seven months of pushes sit behind the newest tag
Three releases are published, all with bare version names: v6.0.0 on 14 January 2026, v6.1.0 on 30 January 2026 and v6.2.0 on 20 February 2026. The manifest version reads 6.2.0, so the number in the file matches the newest tag and there is no skew to explain. The repository's last push is dated 2 October 2026, which places roughly seven and a half months of commits after the newest release with no new tag published. Since the documented way to obtain the template is to download a release rather than to clone, that gap is not cosmetic: someone who follows the setup steps today gets the February state of the code, not the October state. The metadata also carries a small error worth knowing about, an author contact address at athlon.technlogy, with the domain misspelled relative to the athlon.technology homepage.
Six packages stand between you and an optimised image, and the threshold is unnamed
Image optimisation is promised for jpeg, jpg, png, gif and svg, handled through the imagemin family. Counting the manifest entries gives six: image-minimizer-webpack-plugin to drive it from webpack, imagemin as the core, and imagemin-gifsicle, imagemin-jpegtran, imagemin-optipng and imagemin-svgo for the four formats. The same block promises to inline and embed images and fonts below a configurable threshold size, which is where the visible text runs out. The section that would name the threshold is Environment Configuration, and the page stops inside the bullet that opens the configuration/environment.js list. So the file a reader is told to edit is named, and the keys inside it are not.
The navigation promises twenty sections, the page covers six
The table of contents runs from Features and Requirements through Setup, Environment Configuration, Additional webpack configuration, Development, Assets Source, four separate build-asset entries, Production, two code style linter entries and three Additional Tools entries ending in Continuous Integration. The text that follows carries the feature list, the requirements, the three installation steps, the package metadata checklist and then stops partway through the Environment Configuration bullet, on a line that begins a bold list item and closes. Everything from Additional webpack configuration onward is a heading with no body behind it. That includes every npm invocation for building assets once, watching source files, starting the development server, running the SASS and JavaScript linters and opening the bundle analyzer.
Editorial conclusion
Use this template if you want a multi-page webpack setup with SASS, PostCSS, image optimisation and linters already wired, and if you are willing to reconcile the documentation with package.json on your first hour. Four checks before you commit to it. Confirm the Node floor, since >=22.15.0 is stricter than most CI images ship by default. Confirm which Babel major you actually get, since the prose says 7 and the manifest asks for 8. Confirm where webpack itself comes from, since it is not among the named dependency entries even though everything else is built on it. And confirm the release you install against: the newest tag is v6.2.0 from February 2026 while the repository has been pushed to since, so the manifest version and the newest tag agree and both predate the recent work. Anyone expecting an actively maintained opinion on webpack versus other bundlers will not find one here; this is a template, and its value is the wiring.
Frequently asked questions
What Node version does frontend-webpack-boilerplate require?
The requirements list gives two entries: node at >=22.15.0, and npm. The README notes that npm install can be used instead of npm ci if the clean install raises a system error on a specific platform.
How is the frontend-webpack-boilerplate template installed?
By downloading the latest release archive from the repository's releases list, extracting it to a new directory, renaming it to the project name, and running npm ci. The documented setup does not begin with git clone.
Does frontend-webpack-boilerplate really have zero dependencies?
The feature list headlines 0 dependencies, and the manifest has no runtime dependencies block. Its devDependencies name 32 packages, from @babel/core to terser-webpack-plugin, plus loaders and plugins for the build itself.
Which lint and format config files ship with frontend-webpack-boilerplate?
.stylelintrc.json, eslint.config.mjs, .prettierrc and .editorconfig sit at the top level, alongside .babelrc, postcss.config.js and webpack.config.js. The prose instead points at .sasslintrc and .eslint.config.mjs, neither of which matches the file on disk.
Which Babel version does frontend-webpack-boilerplate use?
The features list names Babel 7, but the manifest pins @babel/core at ^8.0.1 and @babel/preset-env at ^8.0.2. Browser targets are set separately in a browserslist array reading last 2 versions and greater than 5 percent.
Official sources
Add this badge to your README
If you maintain this project, the badge below links readers to this analysis and shows its maintenance status from the daily GitHub snapshot. Paste the markdown into your README; add ?metric=license or ?metric=stars to the image URL for a different field.
[](https://hysenlabs.com/projects/weareathlon-frontend-webpack-boilerplate)