Chestnut
A Clojure/ClojureScript web application template with live reloading, REPL, and deployment-ready configuration.
What is Chestnut?
Chestnut is a Clojure/ClojureScript application template that simplifies setting up web applications with live reloading and a browser-connected REPL. It provides a pre-configured environment for developing full-stack Clojure web apps, handling build configurations, server setup, and deployment readiness out of the box.
Clojure and ClojureScript developers, from beginners seeking a quick start to seasoned developers wanting a robust, minimal-configuration foundation for web applications.
Developers choose Chestnut for its balanced approach: it offers comprehensive defaults for a productive workflow (live reloading, REPL, testing) while avoiding excessive boilerplate, allowing flexibility in application structure and technology choices.
Overview
Application template for Clojure + ClojureScript web apps
Use Cases
Best For
- Quickly starting new Clojure/ClojureScript web projects
- Setting up a live-reloading development environment with Figwheel
- Developing React-based UIs with ClojureScript wrappers like Reagent or Rum
- Deploying Clojure web applications to Heroku with minimal configuration
- Learning ClojureScript with a pre-configured, REPL-driven workflow
- Building full-stack Clojure applications with separate dev/prod builds
Not Ideal For
- Projects needing out-of-the-box features like authentication or database ORM
- Teams preferring non-JVM stacks or avoiding Java dependencies
- Applications requiring server-side rendering (SSR) without client-side JavaScript
- Developers seeking a heavily opinionated framework with strict conventions
Pros & Cons
Pros
Integrated Figwheel support automatically reloads ClojureScript and CSS on file save, eliminating manual browser refreshes and speeding up development.
Enables interactive development with a REPL connected directly to the browser, allowing real-time code evaluation and debugging as highlighted in the README.
Supports multiple React wrappers like Reagent, Rum, om-next, re-frame, or vanilla JavaScript, giving developers choice without locking them into a single UI library.
Provides separate dev/prod/test ClojureScript builds with uberjar support and Heroku configuration, making deployment straightforward and scalable.
Cons
Requires Java 1.7+ and Leiningen 2, adding setup complexity and potential barriers for developers unfamiliar with the JVM ecosystem.
As a minimal template, it lacks advanced features like authentication, database integration, or pre-built UI components, necessitating additional manual setup for complex projects.
The README warns that it may describe unreleased features, and using snapshot versions can lead to instability or breaking changes, requiring careful version management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.