Clojure Stack Lite

A quick way to start a full-stack Clojure app with server-side rendering. Built on a powerful yet lightweight stack featuring SQLite, HTMX, AlpineJS, and TailwindCSS v4.

This template is designed to be lightweight and easy to use, with a focus on rapid development and deployment. Minimal distraction and sane defaults. Everything is streamlined to give you a solid foundation for building modern web applications.

Get started building your new Clojure application in seconds and be productive!

Usage

Create a new Clojure project using Clojure CLI:

clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib io.github.seancorfield/deps-new :as new
clojure -Sdeps '{:override-deps {org.clojure/clojure {:mvn/version "1.12.0"}}}' -Tnew create :template io.github.abogoyavlensky/clojure-stack-lite :name myproject

Or alternatively using neil:

brew install babashka/brew/neil
neil new io.github.abogoyavlensky/clojure-stack-lite myproject

Start development (with mise):
```
cd myproject
mise trust && mise install
bb clj-repl
(reset)
```
The server should be available at http://localhost:8000. Check out project's README.md and template documentation for more information on how to use the project.

Tip

Edit some details before going to production: label in Dockerfile, domain in resources/public/manifest.json and description in README.md

Features

🏗️ Robust Clojure stack powered by Integrant and Reitit/Ring
🎨 Lightweight frontend using HTMX, AlpineJS and TailwindCSS v4 (with optional DaisyUI components)
📦 SQLite/PostgreSQL database (you choose)
🔄 Zero-downtime deployment via Kamal
⚡ GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline
🧪 Integration and unit testing setup with coverage
🔍 Linting, formatting and deps version management
⚙️ deps.edn and Babashka Tasks for efficient project management
📱 Basic PWA support out of the box (without service worker)

Stack

Backend

Integrant: Component lifecycle management for application
Reitit: Fast data-driven routing
Ring/Jetty: HTTP server adapter
Hiccup: HTML generation from Clojure data structures
Malli: Data validation and specification

Database

SQLite/PostgreSQL: Choose between file-based SQLite or enterprise-grade PostgreSQL
next.jdbc: JDBC-based database access
HoneySQL: SQL as Clojure data structures
Ragtime: Database migrations

Frontend

HTMX 2: HTML extensions for AJAX without writing JavaScript
AlpineJS 3: Lightweight JavaScript framework for adding behavior
TailwindCSS 4: Utility-first CSS framework
[OPTIONAL] DaisyUI: A UI Component library (Add :daisyui true while generating template)

Development

Babashka: Project management with tasks
clj-kondo: Static analyzer and linter
cljfmt: Code formatter
eftest/cloverage: Testing and code coverage

Deployment

Docker: Containerization
Kamal: Zero-downtime deployments
GitHub Actions: CI/CD workflows

Project structure

The template generates a Clojure project with the following structure:

├── .clj-kondo/            # Clojure linting configuration
├── .github/               # GitHub Actions workflows and configurations
├── .kamal/                # Kamal deployment configuration (only used with Kamal)
├── db/                    # Empty database directory for database files (only used with SQLite)
├── dev/                   # Development configuration directory
│   └── user.clj           # User-specific development configuration
├── resources/             # Static resources and configuration files
│   ├── public/            # Public assets (CSS, JS, images)
│   ├── migrations/        # Database migration files
│   ├── config.edn         # Main configuration file for the application
│   ├── config.dev.edn     # Development-specific configuration
│   └── logback.xml        # Logging configuration file
├── src/                   # Source code directory
│   └── {{name}}           # Main namespace directory
│       ├── core.clj       # Application entry point
│       ├── db.clj         # Database system component and main operations
│       ├── handlers.clj   # HTTP request handlers
│       ├── routes.clj     # Route definitions
│       ├── server.clj     # Server system component
│       └── views.clj      # HTML templates and components with Hiccup
├── test/                  # Test files directory
│   └── {{name}}           # Test namespace directory
│       ├── home_test.clj  # Example test for home page
│       └── test_utils.clj # Test utilities
├── .cljfmt.edn            # Formatting configuration
├── .gitignore             # Git ignore rules
├── .mise.toml             # mise-en-place configuration with system dependencies
├── bb.edn                 # Babashka tasks configuration for managing application
├── deps.edn               # Clojure dependencies and aliases
├── Dockerfile             # Dockerfile for building the application image
├── docker-compose.yaml    # Run PostgreSQL database for local development (only used with PostgreSQL)
├── LICENSE                # License file, AGPLv3 by default, for motivation check: https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-licenses
└── README.md              # Project documentation

Options

The template offers customization options for generating your project:

:daisyui - Include DaisyUI, a component library for TailwindCSS (Default: false)

Possible values: false | true

Usage example:

clojure -Tnew create :template io.github.abogoyavlensky/clojure-stack-lite :name myproject :daisyui true

Roadmap

Template Development

Requirements

To work with this template, you need:

mise (recommended) or manual installation of:
- Java
- Clojure
- Babashka

Getting Started

All management tasks:

bb tasks
The following tasks are available:

test    Run tests for the template config
new     Create a new project
release Create and push a new git tag based on provided version

After you updated the template and ran tests bb test, you can create a new project to check if everything works as expected:

bb new

The new project will be created in the tmpl directory at the root that is ignored by git.

Release

Once you are ready to release a new version of the template, bump version in deps.edn:

:aliases -> :build -> :exec-args -> :version -> "0.1.1

and then run the following command:

bb release

A new git tag based on latest version will be created and pushed to the repository.

eval/clojure-stack-lite