Installing and configuring Backpack

Creating a modern Node.js app with Backpack can be as easy as implementing the following steps:

1. Install Backpack via npm:

$ npm i backpack-core

2. Create a /src/ directory and a package.json file in the project root with backpack in the dev script as follows:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "backpack"
  }
}

Note that you must provide the /src/ as the default entry directory of your app.

3. Create a Backpack config file in your project root with a function to configure webpack as follows:

// backpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  webpack: (config, options, webpack) => {
    // ....
    return config
  }
}

This step is optional, but it is useful if you want to change the default entry directory (which is the /src/ directory that you created in step 2) of your app to a different one, for example, a /server/ directory, this can be done as follows:

webpack: (config, options, webpack) => {
  config...