Folder structure

In this guide, we will take a tour of the important files and folders created by AdonisJS during the installation process.

We ship with a thoughtful default folder structure that helps you keep your projects tidy and easy to refactor. However, you have all the freedom to diverge and have a folder structure that works great for your team and project.

The adonisrc.ts file

The adonisrc.ts file is used to configure the workspace and some of the runtime settings of your application.

In this file, you can register providers, define command aliases, or specify the files to copy to the production build.

See also: AdonisRC file reference guide

The tsconfig.json file

The tsconfig.json file stores the TypeScript configuration for your application. Feel free to make changes to this file as per your project or team's requirements.

The following configuration options are required for AdonisJS internals to work correctly.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "isolatedModules": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "outDir": "./build",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true
  }
}

The sub-path imports

AdonisJS uses the sub-path imports feature from Node.js to define the import aliases.

The following import aliases are pre-configured within the package.json file. Feel free to add new aliases or edit the existing ones.

{
  "imports": {
    "#controllers/*": "./app/controllers/*.js",
    "#exceptions/*": "./app/exceptions/*.js",
    "#models/*": "./app/models/*.js",
    "#mails/*": "./app/mails/*.js",
    "#services/*": "./app/services/*.js",
    "#listeners/*": "./app/listeners/*.js",
    "#events/*": "./app/events/*.js",
    "#middleware/*": "./app/middleware/*.js",
    "#validators/*": "./app/validators/*.js",
    "#providers/*": "./app/providers/*.js",
    "#policies/*": "./app/policies/*.js",
    "#abilities/*": "./app/abilities/*.js",
    "#database/*": "./database/*.js",
    "#tests/*": "./tests/*.js",
    "#start/*": "./start/*.js",
    "#config/*": "./config/*.js"
  }
}

In order for code editors to autocomplete imports using import aliases, you will have to re-define the same aliases inside tsconfig.json file as well. We hope, the editors will soon catchup and rely on package.json as the single source of truth for aliases.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "paths": {
      "#controllers/*": ["./app/controllers/*.js"],
      "#exceptions/*": ["./app/exceptions/*.js"],
      "#models/*": ["./app/models/*.js"],
      "#mails/*": ["./app/mails/*.js"],
      "#services/*": ["./app/services/*.js"],
      "#listeners/*": ["./app/listeners/*.js"],
      "#events/*": ["./app/events/*.js"],
      "#middleware/*": ["./app/middleware/*.js"],
      "#validators/*": ["./app/validators/*.js"],
      "#providers/*": ["./app/providers/*.js"],
      "#policies/*": ["./app/policies/*.js"],
      "#abilities/*": ["./app/abilities/*.js"],
      "#database/*": ["./database/*.js"],
      "#tests/*": ["./tests/*.js"],
      "#start/*": ["./start/*.js"],
      "#config/*": ["./config/*.js"]
    }
  }
}

The bin directory

The bin directory has the entry point files to load your application in a specific environment. For example:

• The bin/server.ts file boots the application in the web environment to listen for HTTP requests.
• The bin/console.ts file boots the Ace commandline and executes commands.
• The bin/test.ts file boots the application to run tests.

The ace.js file

The ace file boots the command-line framework that is local to your app. So every time you run an ace command, it goes through this file.

If you notice, the ace file ends with a .js extension. This is because we want to run this file using the node binary without compiling it.

The app directory

The app directory organizes code for the domain logic of your application. For example, the controllers, models, services, etc., all live within the app directory.

Feel free to create additional directories to better organize your application code.

├── app
│  └── controllers
│  └── exceptions
│  └── middleware
│  └── models
│  └── validators

The resources directory

The resources directory contains the Edge templates, alongside the source files of your frontend code. In other words, the code for the presentation layer of your app lives within the resources directory.

├── resources
│  └── views
│  └── js
│  └── css
│  └── fonts
│  └── images

The start directory

The start directory contains the files you want to import during the boot lifecycle of the application. For example, the files to register routes and define event listeners should live within the start directory.

├── start
│  ├── env.ts
│  ├── kernel.ts
│  ├── routes.ts
│  ├── validator.ts
│  ├── events.ts

AdonisJS does not auto-import files from the start directory. It is merely used as a convention to group similar files.

We recommend reading about preload files and the application boot lifecycle to have a better understanding of which files to keep under the start directory.

The public directory

The public directory hosts static assets like CSS files, images, fonts, or the frontend JavaScript.

Do not confuse the public directory with the resources directory. The resources directory contains the source code of your frontend application, and the public directory has the compiled output.

When using Vite, you should store the frontend assets inside the resources/<SUB_DIR> directories and let the Vite compiler create the output in the public directory.

On the other hand, if you are not using Vite, you can create files directly inside the public directory and access them using the filename. For example, you can access the ./public/style.css file from the http://localhost:3333/style.css URL.

The database directory

The database directory contains files for database migrations and seeders.

├── database
│  └── migrations
│  └── seeders

The commands directory

The ace commands are stored within the commands directory. You can create commands inside this folder by running node ace make:command.

The config directory

The config directory contains the runtime configuration files for your application.

The framework's core and other installed packages read configuration files from this directory. You can also store config local to your application inside this directory.

Learn more about configuration management.

├── config
│  ├── app.ts
│  ├── bodyparser.ts
│  ├── cors.ts
│  ├── database.ts
│  ├── drive.ts
│  ├── hash.ts
│  ├── logger.ts
│  ├── session.ts
│  ├── static.ts

The types directory

The types directory is the house for the TypeScript interfaces or types used within your application.

The directory is empty by default, however, you can create files and folders within the types directory to define custom types and interfaces.

├── types
│  ├── events.ts
│  ├── container.ts

The providers directory

The providers directory is used to store the service providers used by your application. You can create new providers using the node ace make:provider command.

Learn more about service providers

├── providers
│  └── app_provider.ts
│  └── http_server_provider.ts

The tmp directory

The temporary files generated by your application are stored within the tmp directory. For example, these could be user-uploaded files (generated during development) or logs written to the disk.

The tmp directory must be ignored by the .gitignore rules, and you should not copy it to the production server either.

The tests directory

The tests directory organizes your application tests. Further, sub-directories are created for unit and functional tests.

See also: Testing

├── tests
│  ├── bootstrap.ts
│  └── functional
│  └── regression
│  └── unit