The feature picker

The starter is a menu. Every feature is either core (always present) or prunable (yours to include or leave out). The picker — interactive or via --features — is where you choose, and the generator resolves your choice against the feature dependency graph before anything is copied.

Core vs prunable features

Two features are core and can never be deselected — they're the spine every app needs:

The remaining twelve are prunable. In the interactive picker they all start checked; in --features you name the ones you want.

(There are 14 features total; this is the definitive list from features.json, the single source of truth the CLI reads.)

Dependencies are resolved automatically

Each feature declares what it requires. When you select a feature, the generator pulls in the transitive closure of its requirements — you never have to hand-trace the graph.

For example, selecting usage gives you:

usage → requires billing, flags, jobs
  billing → requires orgs, email, jobs
    email → requires jobs
  flags → requires billing

So --features usage resolves to usage, billing, flags, jobs, email — plus the core auth and orgs. Everything else is pruned.

In the interactive flow, because @clack/prompts' multi-select is a static list that can't grey out a dependent live as you toggle, the dependency awareness is applied after you submit: the generator auto-adds every required dependency and prints a note telling you which selection pulled each one in, so the choice stays explicit. Dependencies win over deselection — if you uncheck a feature that a checked feature needs, it comes back.

Features can't be added after generation

The graph is resolved once, at generate time. A generated app has no features.json and no way to "turn on" a feature later — the code for pruned features simply isn't there. If you find you need a feature you left out, regenerate the app with it selected.

This is why the add <block> command can only install blocks whose required features your app already has: blocks compose existing features, they don't introduce them.

Choosing a starting point

• Prototyping or unsure? Take the full app (interactive defaults, or --yes with no --features) and prune later by regenerating.
• Know exactly what you need? Name it: --features billing,files,audit-log. The generator adds the dependencies.
• Want the leanest base? --features core — just auth and orgs.