@@ -198,9 +198,8 @@ After a moment, you'll have a working project with the following structure:
      -  *middleware.ts* — Connects Fedify to Astro's request pipeline
  -  *public/* — Files served as-is (favicon, etc.)
  -  *astro.config.ts* — Astro configuration
- -  *.oxfmtrc.json* — Code formatter settings
  -  *.oxlintrc.json* — Code linter settings
- -  *package.json* — Package metadata and scripts
+ -  *package.json* — Package metadata, scripts, and Prettier formatter setup
  -  *tsconfig.json* — TypeScript settings
 
 Because we're using TypeScript instead of plain JavaScript, source files have
 
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
-import { mkdir, mkdtemp, rm, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { mkdir, mkdtemp, readFile, rm, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { join } from "node:path";
 import test from "node:test";
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import {
   assertNoGeneratedFileConflicts,
   GeneratedFileConflictError,
   getJsonsCacheKey,
+  patchFiles,
 } from "./patch.ts";
 
 test("assertNoGeneratedFileConflicts allows unrelated files", async () => {
@@ -61,6 +62,19 @@ test("getJsonsCacheKey stays stable across pipeline clones", () => {
   assert.equal(getJsonsCacheKey(cloned), getJsonsCacheKey(data));
 });
 
+test("patchFiles merges JSONC files containing only comments", async () => {
+  await withTempDir(async (dir) => {
+    await writeFile(join(dir, "package.json"), "// generated scaffold\n");
+
+    await patchFiles(createInitData(dir, false));
+
+    const packageJson = JSON.parse(
+      await readFile(join(dir, "package.json"), "utf8"),
+    ) as { type?: string };
+    assert.equal(packageJson.type, "module");
+  });
+});
+
 function createInitData(
   dir: string,
   allowNonEmpty: boolean,
 
@@ -327,6 +327,7 @@ const parseJsoncObject = (
 ): Record<PropertyKey, unknown> => {
   const errors: ParseError[] = [];
   const value = parseJsonc(jsonString, errors, { allowTrailingComma: true });
+  if (value === undefined && isEmptyJsonc(errors)) return {};
   if (errors.length > 0) {
     throw new SyntaxError(
       errors
@@ -342,6 +343,10 @@ const parseJsoncObject = (
   return value as Record<PropertyKey, unknown>;
 };
 
+const isEmptyJsonc = (errors: readonly ParseError[]): boolean =>
+  errors.length > 0 &&
+  errors.every(({ error }) => printParseErrorCode(error) === "ValueExpected");
+
 /**
  * Appends new text content to existing text content line by line.
  * Concatenates new content lines with existing content lines,
 
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import $ from "@david/dax";
 import { filter, isEmpty, pipe, toArray } from "@fxts/core";
 import { values } from "@optique/core";
-import { appendFile, mkdir } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { appendFile, mkdir, stat } from "node:fs/promises";
 import { join, sep } from "node:path";
 import process from "node:process";
 import packageManagers from "../json/pm.json" with { type: "json" };
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ async function validateDevToolScripts(
     MessageQueue,
   ];
   if (packageManager === "deno") return true;
+  if (!(await hasInstalledNodeDependencies(dir))) return true;
 
   for (const script of ["format:check", "lint"]) {
     const result = await $`${[packageManager, "run", script]}`
@@ -145,6 +146,14 @@ async function validateDevToolScripts(
   return true;
 }
 
+async function hasInstalledNodeDependencies(dir: string): Promise<boolean> {
+  try {
+    return (await stat(join(dir, "node_modules"))).isDirectory();
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
 export function filterOptions(
   options: GeneratedType<ReturnType<typeof generateTestCases>>,
 ): boolean {