Okay okay, not quite a bare-bones boilerplate, more of a small sample app built using Express and Backbone plus a few friends. I've called it a boilerplate because I've used it as the basis for a few bigger projects, so hope it can help others in this regard too.

• Node.js
• npm
• PhantomJS
• CasperJS
• Pygments
• Grunt-CLI
• Compass

Run npm install once you've got a copy of the project.

• Can be started via grunt start
• Can be accessed via http://localhost:3000/client/

You can also pass the following commandline args to grunt start:

• --NODE_ENV: production or development (defaults to development)
• --NODE_PORT: (defaults to 3000)

e.g. grunt start --NODE_ENV=production --NODE_PORT=4000 will start the server in production mode on port 4000.

The grunt start task will also:

• Watch the SASS files, and recompile the dev CSS if any changes are made
• Watch the client src & test JS files, and run JSHint plus the client tests if any changes are made
• Watch the server src & test JS files, and run JSHint plus the server tests if any changes are made

RequireJS is used for file and module loading. Backbone.js is the client-side MVC framework. Handlebars is used for client-side templating. Compass is used for CSS authoring.

• Can be run in the browser via http://localhost:3000/client/test/
• Can also be run headless via grunt test-client
• JUnit XML is output to ./_junitxml/client

A module listing the required tests to run is generated via grunt. Jasmine is used for testing the JS. CasperJS is used to drive the tests headless via PhantomJS.

• Can be run via grunt test-server
• JUnit XML is output to ./_junitxml/server

jasmine-node is used for testing the Node server JS.

• Can be generated via grunt docs
• Output to ./_docs
• Can be accessed via http://localhost:3000/_docs

Docker is used to generate the client-side docs.

• Can be generated via grunt dist

Uses the RequireJS optimiser to compress the JS. Rewrites the index.html file to only include the one script.

• @andrewpmckenzie, whose node-jasmine-dom was a big inspiration for this project
• @smozely, for the scaffolding and eventMediator suggestions
• @timsnadden, for showing me some new npm modules and Backbone helpers