Clean Architecture Starter API Template

A production-ready ASP.NET Core Web API template built with Clean Architecture principles. This starter kit comes pre-configured with Identity Authentication, JWT Security, Role Management, Email Verification, Serilog Logging, and Global Exception Handling.

It is designed to be a robust starting point for enterprise-level applications, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and standard coding practices.

🚀 Features

• Clean Architecture: Strict separation of concerns (Domain, Application, Infrastructure, API).
• Authentication & Authorization:
  • ASP.NET Core Identity.
  • JWT Token Authentication (Access Tokens).
  • Role-Based Authorization (Admin, User, Manager).
• Security:
  • Standardized API Responses (Succeeded, Data, Message).
  • Global Exception Handling Middleware (hides stack traces in production).
  • CORS Policy Configuration.
• Logging:
  • Serilog integrated for structured logging.
  • Logs to Console (colored) and File (rolling daily intervals).
  • Request Logging (logs HTTP method, path, and duration).
• Email System:
  • MailKit integration for sending emails.
  • HTML Email Template support.
  • Email Verification flow.
• Database:
  • Entity Framework Core.
  • Automated Database Seeding (Admin User & Default Roles).

🛠 Tech Stack

• Framework: .NET 10
• Language: C#
• Database: Microsoft SQL Server
• ORM: Entity Framework Core
• Auth: ASP.NET Core Identity & JWT Bearer
• Logging: Serilog
• Email: MailKit
• Documentation: OpenAPI (Built-in)

📂 Project Structure

The solution follows the Clean Architecture dependency rule (dependencies flow inward):

• CleanAuthTemplate.Domain:
  • Enterprise logic and entities (e.g., ApplicationUser).
  • No dependencies on other projects.
• CleanAuthTemplate.Application:
  • Business logic, Interfaces (IEmailService, IJwtTokenGenerator), and DTOs.
  • Depends on Domain.
• CleanAuthTemplate.Infrastructure:
  • External concerns (DbContext, Email Implementation, Identity, JWT generation).
  • Depends on Application.
• CleanAuthTemplate.API:
  • Presentation layer (Controllers, Middleware, Program.cs).
  • Depends on Application and Infrastructure.

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📦 How to Use as a Template

You can install this project as a local .NET template to generate new solutions with a single command.

1. Download & Install the Template

Clone the repository and install it into your .NET CLI:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dabananda/CleanAuthTemplate.git
cd CleanAuthTemplate

# Install the template locally
dotnet new install .

2. Create a New Project

Once installed, you can create a new solution anywhere on your machine. The template will automatically rename all files and namespaces (e.g., CleanAuthTemplate → MyNewApp).

# Create a directory for your new project
mkdir MyNewApp
cd MyNewApp

# Generate the solution (Replace 'MyNewApp' with your desired name)
dotnet new cleanauth -n MyNewApp

3. Setup Your New Project

After generating your project, follow these steps to get it running:

1. Configure Settings: Open MyNewApp.API/appsettings.json and update:

   • ConnectionStrings: Point to your local SQL Server.
   • EmailSettings: Add your SMTP credentials.
   • JwtSettings: Set a secure Secret key.

2. Initialize Database:

dotnet ef database update -s MyNewApp.API -p MyNewApp.Infrastructure

3. Run the API:

dotnet run --project MyNewApp.API

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⚡ Running the Template Source (Development)

If you want to contribute to this template or run the source code directly without installing it:

1. Prerequisites

• .NET SDK
• SQL Server (LocalDB or Docker)

2. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/dabananda/CleanAuthTemplate.git
cd CleanAuthTemplate

3. Configuration

Update CleanAuthTemplate.API/appsettings.json with your settings:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=CleanAuthTemplateDb;Trusted_Connection=True;TrustServerCertificate=Yes;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
  },
  "EmailSettings": {
    "SmtpServer": "smtp.gmail.com",
    "SmtpPort": 587,
    "Username": "your-email@gmail.com",
    "Password": "your-app-password",
    "From": "your-email@gmail.com"
  },
  "JwtSettings": {
    "Secret": "your-very-secure-secret-key-minimum-32-chars",
    "Issuer": "CleanAuthTemplateAPI",
    "Audience": "CleanAuthTemplateClient",
    "DurationInMinutes": "60"
  },
  "AdminUser": {
    "Email": "admin@email.com",
    "Password": "Pass@123"
  },
  "DefaultUser": {
    "Email": "user@email.com",
    "Password": "Pass@123"
  },
  "Serilog": {
    "Using": [ "Serilog.Sinks.Console", "Serilog.Sinks.File" ],
    "MinimumLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Override": {
        "Microsoft": "Warning",
        "System": "Warning"
      }
    },
    "WriteTo": [
      {
        "Name": "Console",
        "Args": {
          "theme": "Serilog.Sinks.SystemConsole.Themes.AnsiConsoleTheme::Code, Serilog.Sinks.Console",
          "outputTemplate": "[{Timestamp:HH:mm:ss} {Level:u3}] {Message:lj}{NewLine}{Exception}"
        }
      },
      {
        "Name": "File",
        "Args": {
          "path": "Logs/log-.txt",
          "rollingInterval": "Day",
          "retainedFileCountLimit": 7,
          "outputTemplate": "{Timestamp:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.fff zzz} [{Level:u3}] {Message:lj}{NewLine}{Exception}"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*"
}

4. Database Setup

Apply migrations and seed the database (creates default Roles and Admin user):

dotnet ef database update -s CleanAuthTemplate.API -p CleanAuthTemplate.Infrastructure

5. Run the Application

dotnet run --project CleanAuthTemplate.API

The API will start at https://localhost:7078 (or similar).

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📖 API Documentation

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/register: Register a new user (sends verification email).
• POST /api/auth/login: Login to receive a JWT Token.
• GET /api/auth/verify-email: Verify email using the token sent.

Default Admin Credentials

• Email: admin@email.com
• Password: Admin@123

(Note: These are created automatically by the DbSeeder on first run).

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🛡️ Response Format

All API responses follow this standard wrapper:

{
  "succeeded": true,
  "message": "Operation Successful",
  "errors": null,
  "data": { ... }
}

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👤 Author

Dabananda Mitra

• Portfolio: dmitra.netlify.app
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dabananda
• Email: dabananda.dev@gmail.com
• WhatsApp: +8801304080014

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt file for details.