init

name	init
description	Use only when the user explicitly names Cladding and asks to initialize, adopt, or refresh it; never use for an ordinary project creation or implementation request. Scaffold from an idea, planning document, or existing project through the MCP prepare/apply flow.

Cladding init

Use this workflow only when the user explicitly asks to initialize, adopt, or refresh Cladding. Opening a repository alone is not consent to initialize it.

Required host workflow

If the current user message itself matches APPLY CLADDING XXXXXX, do not call prepare or stage again. Call clad_init once and copy the entire user message, including the APPLY CLADDING prefix, into confirmation.

1. If a greenfield request has no project intent, ask for one short description.
2. Call clad_prepare_init with exactly one starting mode:
   • idea with the user's description.
   • document with a project-relative planning-document path.
   • existing for an existing codebase; include an optional adoption goal.
3. Read the returned prompt and observations. Draft the structured object required by clad_init using the current host model, then call clad_stage_init with the preparation token and that draft. Staging validates the draft and stores only ignored runtime state under .cladding/host/; it does not modify authored project files.
4. Show plannedChanges, the staged confirmationQuestion, and its one-time approvalChallenge to the user, then stop and wait for a separate reply. The original initialization request is not confirmation.
5. Only when the user's separate reply exactly matches approvalChallenge, call clad_init with the entire reply verbatim as confirmation—never strip the APPLY CLADDING prefix. Include the draft and token when the host retained them; process-per-turn hosts may omit both because Cladding resolves the exact staged draft from its short-lived machine-local cache. Questions, paraphrases, and generic acknowledgements are not approval.
6. If nextQuestion is present, show it verbatim and end the assistant turn immediately. Never answer it, infer an answer, or call either clarify tool during the initialization-approval turn. Continue with the Cladding clarify workflow only after a new user message supplies the answer. If no question remains, report that onboarding is complete and that the next step is to author the first feature's spec — its acceptance criteria and the files it will cover — before writing any code; the feature cycle starts there, not with scaffolding.

Do not run clad init in a shell from an AI-host onboarding session. Do not use MCP sampling. If the MCP tools are absent, tell the user to run clad setup, restart the AI host in the project directory, and stop without writing project files.

clad_prepare_init does not modify the workspace, and clad_stage_init writes only ignored runtime state. Never call stage and apply in the same assistant turn. Only clad_init writes authored artifacts, after explicit user confirmation plus schema and freshness validation. A stale, malformed, or replayed apply request must be prepared again.

The raw CLI remains available for terminal, CI, offline, and explicitly configured SDK automation; it is not the primary host onboarding path.