feat: "Boring baseline" app template — auth/RBAC + DB + CRUD pre-deployed via config flag

[PhilippWu]

Feature Request

"Add a 'boring baseline' app template (auth/rbac + db + crud) so people can go from infra → real app faster"

— u/Few-Garlic2725 on r/vibecoding

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Problem

Right now RemoteVibeServer gets you from zero to a working dev environment very fast — but the first thing most users do is still bootstrap a new app from scratch. That means setting up auth, a database schema, RBAC, and basic CRUD before you can start vibing on the actual product.

Proposed Solution

Add an optional starter app template that gets deployed into the Coder workspace automatically, controlled by a config flag in the configurator.

Config flag (proposed)

In cloud-init.yaml / configurator:

STARTER_TEMPLATE=fullstack-baseline   # or: none (default)

The "boring baseline" template should include

• Auth — registration, login, logout, session/JWT
• RBAC — at least admin / user roles
• Database — PostgreSQL or SQLite with a migration setup (e.g. Prisma, Alembic, or plain SQL)
• CRUD — one example resource end-to-end (e.g. items or posts)
• Frontend stub — minimal UI wired to the API (optional, could be API-only first)

Stack options to evaluate

• Next.js + Prisma + PostgreSQL (most popular in vibe-coding circles)
• FastAPI + SQLAlchemy + PostgreSQL (Python-native)
• Rails (convention-over-configuration, batteries included)
• Reference: Flatlogic Web App Generator for inspiration on scope

UX flow

1. User runs configurator → selects starter template
2. cloud-init.yaml includes STARTER_TEMPLATE=fullstack-baseline
3. After provisioning, the workspace already has the repo cloned, deps installed, DB migrated, and dev server running
4. User opens VS Code Web → starts vibing on features immediately, no setup

Acceptance Criteria

• New config flag STARTER_TEMPLATE added to configurator and env file
• At least one template implemented and tested end-to-end
• Template repo is cloned and bootstrapped during workspace init (in main.tf or agent startup script)
• DB is migrated and dev server starts automatically
• README / docs updated with template options

Notes

• Templates could live in a separate repo or as a subdirectory in this repo
• Long-term: multiple templates selectable from the configurator (baseline, SaaS, API-only, etc.)
• Inspired by community feedback from r/vibecoding 🙏