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outline: deep
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# Creating an app
In the [quick start](./starting.md) we created a Feathers application in a single file to get a better understanding of how Feathers itself works.
The Feathers CLI allows us to initialize a new Feathers server with a recommended structure and generate things we commonly need like authentication, a database connection or new services. You can find the complete example in the [feathers-chat repository](https://github.com/feathersjs/feathers-chat).
## Generating the application
You can create a new Feathers application by running `npm create feathers `. To create a new Feathers application called `feathers-chat` we can run:
```sh
npm create feathers@pre feathers-chat
```
If you never ran the command before you might be asked to confirm the package installation by pressing enter.
Since the generated application is using modern features like ES modules, the Feathers CLI requires Node 16 or newer. The `npx feathers --version` command should show `5.0.0-pre.34` or later.
First, choose if you want to use JavaScript or TypeScript. When presented with the project name, just hit enter, or enter a name (no spaces). Next, write a short description for your application. Confirm the next questions with the default selection by pressing Enter. When asked about authentication methods, let's include GitHub as well so we can look at adding a "Log In with Github" button.
If you want to use **MongoDB** instead of SQLite (or another SQL database) for this guide, select it in the **Database** dropdown in the main menu.
Once you confirm the last prompt, the final selection should look similar to this:
`SQLite` creates an SQL database in a file so we don't need to have a database server running. For any other selection, the database you choose has to be available at the connection string.
Sweet! We generated our first Feathers application in a new folder called `feathers-chat` so we need to go there.
```sh
cd feathers-chat
```
Most generated files have a page in the **App Structure guide** which contains more information about the file and what it does. See for example the [package.json](../cli/package.md) file.
## Running the server and tests
The server can be started by running
```sh
npm run compile
npm run migrate
npm start
```
```sh
npm run compile
npm start
```
```sh
npm start
```
After that, you will see the Feathers logo at
```
http://localhost:3030
```
You can exit the running process by pressing **CTRL + C**
The app also comes with a set of basic tests which can be run with
```sh
npm test
```
There is also a handy development command that restarts the server automatically whenever we make a code change:
```sh
npm run dev
```
Keep this command running throughout the rest of this guide so it will reload all our changes automatically.
## What's next?
In this chapter, we've created a new Feathers application. To learn more about the generated files and what you can do with the CLI, have a look at the [CLI guide](../cli/index.md) after finishing the Getting Started guide. In [the next chapter](./services.md) we will learn more about Feathers services and databases.