Use LoopBack's standard project structure to make it easier to develop and maintain your projects.
Page Contents

LoopBack project files and directories are in the application root directory. Within this directory the standard LoopBack project structure has these sub-directories:

  • server - Node application scripts and configuration files.
  • client - Client JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files (LoopBack tools only).
  • common - Files common to client and server. The /models sub-directory contains model JSON and JavaScript files.
  • definitions - API and product definition YAML files (IBM API Connect only).
File or directory Description How to access in code
Top-level application directory
/node-modules directory Contains Node packages as specified as dependencies in package.json. Update with npm install. N/A
package.json Standard npm package specification. See package.json. N/A
README.md Stub file for internal documentation. N/A
/server directory - Node application files
/boot directory Add scripts to perform initialization and setup. See boot scripts. Scripts are automatically executed in alphabetical order.
/models directory Server-only model definitions. Node:
myModel =
app.models.myModelName
component-config.json Specifies LoopBack components to load. Created by Strongloop tools only. Not used in API Connect.
config.json Application settings. See config.json. app.get('setting-name')
datasources.json Data source configuration file. See datasources.json. For an example, see Create new data source. app.datasources['datasource-name']
middleware.json Middleware definition file. For more information, see Defining middleware. N/A
middleware.development.json Middleware definition file with development configuration. For more information, see Defining middleware. See Preparing for deployment.  
model-config.json Model configuration file. See model-config.json. For more information, see Connecting models to data sources. N/A
server.js Main application program file. N/A
/client directory - Client application files
README.md LoopBack generators create empty README.md file. N/A
Other Add your HTML, CSS, client JavaScript files.  
/common directory - shared application files
/models directory Custom model files:
  • Model definition JSON files, by convention named model-name.json; for example customer.json.
  • Custom model scripts by convention named model-name.js; for example, customer.js.
For more information, see Model definition JSON file and Customizing models. See note below. 		Node:
myModel =
app.models.myModelName