Creating Your First Next.js Application

Welcome to the exciting world of Next.js! In this section, we'll guide you through the straightforward process of creating your very first Next.js application. This will lay the groundwork for all the powerful features and concepts we'll explore throughout this book. We'll be using a command-line tool to get things up and running quickly.

The most common and recommended way to start a new Next.js project is by using create-next-app. This command-line interface (CLI) tool sets up a new Next.js application with a sensible default configuration, including essential files, directories, and build tooling. It's designed to get you productive from the moment you start.

To begin, open your terminal or command prompt. Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project. Then, execute the following command. Replace my-nextjs-app with the desired name for your application.

When you run this command, create-next-app will prompt you with a series of questions to customize your project. These typically include:

• Would you like to use TypeScript? (Recommended for type safety and better developer experience)
• Would you like to use ESLint? (For code linting and enforcing coding standards)
• Would you like to use Tailwind CSS? (A popular utility-first CSS framework)
• Would you like to use src/ directory? (Organizes your code within a source folder)
• Would you like to use App Router? (The newer, recommended routing system in Next.js)
• Would you like to customize the default import alias?

For this introduction, we recommend accepting the defaults for most of these questions, especially choosing 'Yes' for TypeScript and the App Router, as these are core to modern Next.js development. If you're unsure, you can always research these options further or stick to the defaults for now.

Once you've answered the prompts, create-next-app will download the necessary packages and set up your project structure. This might take a few moments. After it's finished, you'll see a confirmation message.