// the find
graphile/starter
Opinionated SaaS quick-start with pre-built user account and organization system for full-stack application development in React, Node.js, GraphQL and PostgreSQL. Powered by PostGraphile, TypeScript, Apollo Client, Graphile Worker, Graphile Migrate, GraphQL Code Generator, Ant Design and Next.js
A full-stack SaaS boilerplate built around PostGraphile — the database schema drives the GraphQL API automatically, so your Postgres schema IS your API. Includes auth, organizations, email verification, OAuth, job queue, and E2E tests out of the box. Explicitly not for beginners, and means it: this thing has 10+ integrated tools you need to already understand before you can productively modify it.
PostGraphile's schema-first approach means auth, RLS policies, and business logic live in Postgres where they belong — not scattered across resolvers. GraphQL Code Generator wired to PostGraphile's introspection gives you fully typed React hooks with zero manual type maintenance. Graphile Worker uses Postgres as the job queue backend, eliminating Redis as a dependency for background tasks. The test suite is unusually complete for a starter — real DB integration tests for auth flows plus Cypress E2E, not just unit tests against mocks.
The stack is locked to Ant Design, Apollo Client, and Next.js Pages Router — all still present and making architectural decisions for you, none of them the current community default anymore. PostGraphile is powerful but the learning curve is steep and the 'magic' creates real debugging friction when something misbehaves at the SQL permission layer. The Heroku deployment path is the primary documented production story, but Heroku's free tier is gone and the script targets a workflow most teams abandoned years ago. No environment variable validation means misconfigured deployments fail in confusing ways at runtime rather than at startup.