composer create-project typo3/cms-base-distribution example-project-directory "^12"

gistfile1.txt

sbuerk@sbdesktop001:/tmp/project-name$ cat composer.json 
{
	"name": "typo3/cms-base-distribution",
	"description" : "TYPO3 CMS Base Distribution",
	"license": "GPL-2.0-or-later",
	"type": "project",
	"config": {
		"allow-plugins": {
			"typo3/class-alias-loader": true,
			"typo3/cms-composer-installers": true
		},
		"platform": {
			"php": "8.1.1"
		},
		"sort-packages": true
	},
	"require": {
		"typo3/cms-backend": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-belog": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-beuser": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-core": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-dashboard": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-extbase": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-extensionmanager": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-felogin": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-filelist": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-fluid": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-fluid-styled-content": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-form": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-frontend": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-impexp": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-info": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-install": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-reactions": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-rte-ckeditor": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-seo": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-setup": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-sys-note": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-t3editor": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-tstemplate": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-viewpage": "^12.4.0",
		"typo3/cms-webhooks": "^12.4.0"
	}
}