perf(cpa): use AST for templates

[denolfe]

Overview

Refactor create-payload-app from string manipulation to AST-based transformations using ts-morph, enabling safer and more maintainable template configuration.

Key Changes

• AST transformation engine (packages/create-payload-app/src/lib/ast/)

  • Type-safe payload config manipulation (database/storage adapters, imports, plugins)
  • Package.json dependency management
  • Prettier integration for formatted output

• Template normalization

  • Removed comment markers from all templates
  • Standardized config structures for consistent AST processing

• Improved reliability

  • Replaced fragile regex patterns with structural code analysis
  • Proper handling of import aliases and property positions

Design Decisions

AST over string manipulation

String-based replacements were brittle and error-prone with variations in formatting, import order, and code structure. Using ts-morph provides:

• Type-aware transformations that understand TypeScript syntax
• Preservation of code formatting via Prettier
• Maintainable operations that won't break on whitespace changes

Adapter configuration centralization

Database and storage adapter configs are now centralized in adapter-config.ts rather than scattered across template files and replacement logic. This reduces duplication and makes adding new adapters straightforward.

Template cleanup

Removed comment markers (e.g., // database-adapter-import-start) from templates since AST can locate insertion points structurally. Templates now serve as clean, production-ready code without scaffolding artifacts.

Overall Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant CLI as create-payload-app
    participant AST as AST Engine
    participant TS as ts-morph
    participant Template as Template Files

    CLI->>Template: Copy template
    CLI->>AST: configurePayloadConfig(options)
    AST->>TS: Parse payload.config.ts
    AST->>TS: Transform config structure
    Note over AST,TS: Replace DB/storage adapters, add/remove plugins, update imports
    TS->>AST: Modified AST
    AST->>AST: Format with Prettier
    AST->>Template: Write updated file
    AST->>Template: Update package.json

[github-actions[bot]]

📦 esbuild Bundle Analysis for payload

This analysis was generated by esbuild-bundle-analyzer. 🤖

Meta File	Out File	Size (raw)	Note
packages/next/meta_index.json	esbuild/index.js	810.16 KB	✅ No change
packages/payload/meta_index.json	esbuild/index.js	1.23 MB	⚠️ +171 B (+0.0%)
packages/payload/meta_shared.json	esbuild/exports/shared.js	164.12 KB	✅ No change
packages/richtext-lexical/meta_client.json	esbuild/exports/client_optimized/index.js	281.03 KB	✅ No change
packages/ui/meta_client.json	esbuild/exports/client_optimized/index.js	1.16 MB	⚠️ +1.77 KB (+0.2%)
packages/ui/meta_shared.json	esbuild/exports/shared_optimized/index.js	14.39 KB	✅ No change

Largest paths

These visualization shows top 20 largest paths in the bundle.

Meta file: packages/next/meta_index.json, Out file: esbuild/index.js

Path	Size
../../node_modules	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ████████████████████▎ }}}$ 81.3%, 654.69 KB
dist/views/Version	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▌ }}}$ 6.2%, 50.26 KB
dist/views/Document	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.9%, 15.45 KB
dist/views/List	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.4%, 11.28 KB
dist/views/Root	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.1%, 8.97 KB
dist/views/API	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 6.01 KB
dist/views/Versions	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 5.96 KB
dist/elements/Nav	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 5.53 KB
dist/views/Account	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 5.32 KB
dist/elements/DocumentHeader	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 4.81 KB
dist/views/Login	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.5%, 4.39 KB
dist/views/Dashboard	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.5%, 3.69 KB
dist/views/ForgotPassword	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 3.09 KB
dist/layouts/Root	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 2.91 KB
dist/templates/Default	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 2.83 KB
dist/views/CreateFirstUser	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 2.76 KB
dist/views/BrowseByFolder	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 2.58 KB
dist/views/CollectionFolders	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 2.46 KB
dist/views/ResetPassword	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 2.41 KB
dist/views/Logout	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.2%, 1.92 KB
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ████▋ }}}$ 18.7%, 150.79 KB

Meta file: packages/payload/meta_index.json, Out file: esbuild/index.js

Path	Size
../../node_modules	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █████████████████▏ }}}$ 68.7%, 841.11 KB
dist/fields/hooks	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▉ }}}$ 3.5%, 43.31 KB
dist/collections/operations	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▊ }}}$ 3.0%, 36.40 KB
dist/auth/operations	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 15.23 KB
dist/queues/operations	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 12.11 KB
dist/globals/operations	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 11.98 KB
dist/fields/config	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 11.95 KB
dist/utilities/configToJSONSchema.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 11.83 KB
dist/fields/validations.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.8%, 10.21 KB
dist/bin/generateImportMap	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 8.38 KB
dist/database/migrations	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 8.07 KB
dist/collections/config	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 7.90 KB
dist/uploads/fetchAPI-multipart	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 7.74 KB
dist/index.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 7.59 KB
dist/config/orderable	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.5%, 6.27 KB
dist/collections/endpoints	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.5%, 6.00 KB
dist/auth/strategies	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 5.50 KB
dist/config/sanitize.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 5.49 KB
dist/auth/endpoints	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 5.42 KB
dist/utilities/telemetry	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 5.31 KB
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ███████▊ }}}$ 31.3%, 383.04 KB

Meta file: packages/payload/meta_shared.json, Out file: esbuild/exports/shared.js

Path	Size
../../node_modules	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ███████████████████▊ }}}$ 79.0%, 126.93 KB
dist/fields/validations.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▌ }}}$ 6.4%, 10.21 KB
dist/fields/baseFields	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.7%, 2.79 KB
dist/utilities/deepCopyObject.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.5%, 2.48 KB
dist/auth/cookies.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 1.55 KB
dist/utilities/flattenTopLevelFields.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.9%, 1.42 KB
dist/fields/config	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.8%, 1.28 KB
dist/utilities/flattenAllFields.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 943 B
dist/folders/utils	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 916 B
dist/utilities/getVersionsConfig.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 895 B
dist/utilities/unflatten.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.5%, 779 B
dist/utilities/sanitizeUserDataForEmail.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 713 B
dist/utilities/getFieldPermissions.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 651 B
dist/collections/config	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 570 B
dist/bin/generateImportMap	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 561 B
dist/auth/sessions.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 525 B
dist/utilities/getSafeRedirect.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 423 B
dist/utilities/deepMerge.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.3%, 413 B
dist/utilities/formatLabels.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.2%, 380 B
dist/utilities/appendUploadSelectFields.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.2%, 360 B
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █████▎ }}}$ 21.0%, 33.69 KB

Meta file: packages/richtext-lexical/meta_client.json, Out file: esbuild/exports/client_optimized/index.js

Path	Size
dist/features/blocks	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ███▏ }}}$ 12.6%, 35.02 KB
dist/lexical/plugins	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ██▉ }}}$ 11.5%, 32.00 KB
dist/lexical/ui	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ██▏ }}}$ 8.8%, 24.36 KB
dist/features/experimental_table	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ██▏ }}}$ 8.5%, 23.70 KB
dist/packages/@lexical	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▋ }}}$ 6.8%, 18.99 KB
dist/features/link	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▋ }}}$ 6.5%, 18.04 KB
dist/features/toolbars	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▌ }}}$ 6.4%, 17.75 KB
dist/features/upload	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▏ }}}$ 4.9%, 13.73 KB
dist/features/textState	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █ }}}$ 4.0%, 11.08 KB
dist/features/relationship	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▊ }}}$ 3.2%, 8.96 KB
dist/lexical/utils	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▊ }}}$ 3.0%, 8.22 KB
dist/features/debug	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▋ }}}$ 2.7%, 7.39 KB
dist/utilities/fieldsDrawer	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▋ }}}$ 2.6%, 7.12 KB
dist/features/converters	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▋ }}}$ 2.5%, 7.04 KB
dist/lexical/config	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.8%, 5.08 KB
dist/features/lists	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.8%, 5.00 KB
dist/features/format	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 3.46 KB
dist/lexical/LexicalEditor.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.1%, 3.17 KB
dist/lexical/theme	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.9%, 2.62 KB
dist/features/indent	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.9%, 2.50 KB
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █████████████████████▊ }}}$ 87.4%, 242.76 KB

Meta file: packages/ui/meta_client.json, Out file: esbuild/exports/client_optimized/index.js

Path	Size
../../node_modules	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ████████████▍ }}}$ 49.9%, 572.85 KB
dist/elements/FolderView	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▋ }}}$ 2.5%, 29.18 KB
dist/elements/BulkUpload	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▌ }}}$ 2.4%, 27.14 KB
dist/elements/WhereBuilder	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.5%, 16.85 KB
dist/views/Edit	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.4%, 16.01 KB
dist/fields/Relationship	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.4%, 15.75 KB
dist/elements/Table	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.3%, 15.46 KB
dist/forms/Form	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.3%, 15.08 KB
dist/fields/Upload	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 14.06 KB
dist/fields/Blocks	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 13.70 KB
dist/elements/QueryPresets	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.9%, 10.28 KB
dist/elements/PublishButton	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.8%, 8.68 KB
dist/providers/Folders	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 8.49 KB
dist/elements/LivePreview	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 8.38 KB
dist/elements/ListHeader	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 7.83 KB
dist/elements/HTMLDiff	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 7.81 KB
dist/fields/Array	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.7%, 7.55 KB
dist/views/CollectionFolder	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 7.37 KB
dist/elements/ReactSelect	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 7.31 KB
dist/views/List	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 6.96 KB
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ████████████▌ }}}$ 50.1%, 575.66 KB

Meta file: packages/ui/meta_shared.json, Out file: esbuild/exports/shared_optimized/index.js

Path	Size
dist/graphics/Logo	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █████▋ }}}$ 22.6%, 3.12 KB
../../node_modules	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ████▊ }}}$ 19.2%, 2.65 KB
dist/graphics/Icon	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ██▊ }}}$ 11.0%, 1.52 KB
dist/utilities/formatDocTitle	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ██▍ }}}$ 9.6%, 1.32 KB
dist/providers/TableColumns	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▌ }}}$ 6.2%, 862 B
dist/utilities/groupNavItems.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▍ }}}$ 5.9%, 814 B
dist/utilities/api.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ █▍ }}}$ 5.5%, 756 B
dist/elements/Translation	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▉ }}}$ 3.6%, 493 B
dist/utilities/handleTakeOver.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▊ }}}$ 3.2%, 440 B
dist/elements/withMergedProps	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▋ }}}$ 2.5%, 339 B
dist/elements/WithServerSideProps	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▍ }}}$ 1.7%, 232 B
dist/utilities/handleGoBack.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 168 B
dist/fields/mergeFieldStyles.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.2%, 159 B
dist/forms/Form	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.1%, 147 B
dist/utilities/abortAndIgnore.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.1%, 146 B
dist/utilities/hasSavePermission.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▎ }}}$ 1.0%, 136 B
dist/utilities/handleBackToDashboard.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.9%, 129 B
dist/utilities/findLocaleFromCode.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 84 B
dist/utilities/sanitizeID.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ▏ }}}$ 0.6%, 77 B
dist/utilities/isEditing.js	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ }}}$ 0.4%, 59 B
(other)	${{\color{Goldenrod}{ ███████████████████▎ }}}$ 77.4%, 10.68 KB

Details

Next to the size is how much the size has increased or decreased compared with the base branch of this PR.

• ‼️: Size increased by 20% or more. Special attention should be given to this.
• ⚠️: Size increased in acceptable range (lower than 20%).
• ✅: No change or even downsized.
• 🗑️: The out file is deleted: not found in base branch.
• 🆕: The out file is newly found: will be added to base branch.

[denolfe]

Manual testing notes:

• cd packages/create-payload-app
• pnpm build
• node ~/<absolute/path>/packages/create-payload-app/bin/cli.js, optionally add --debug

[github-actions[bot]]

🚀 This is included in version v3.67.0