project-init

created	"2025-12-16T00:00:00.000Z"
modified	"2026-08-07T00:00:00.000Z"
reviewed	"2026-08-07T00:00:00.000Z"
allowed-tools	Write, Bash(mkdir *), Bash(git init *), Bash(gh repo create *), Bash(pwd *), Bash(git config *), Bash(which *), SlashCommand, TodoWrite
args	<project-name> [project-type] [--github] [--private]
argument-hint	<project-name> [project-type] [--github] [--private]
disable-model-invocation	true
description	Scaffold a new project with base structure (git, README, LICENSE, CI, pre-commit). Use when starting a new project, initializing a repo, or bootstrapping Python/Node/Rust/Go.
name	project-init

/project:init

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use project-discovery instead when...
Scaffolding a brand-new project from scratch (src/tests/docs, README, CI)	Working in an existing repo that already has structure
Bootstrapping a Python/Node/Rust/Go codebase with universal base layout	Use project-continue instead when picking up work in an established project
Creating a matching GitHub repository alongside the local skeleton	Use project-distill instead when extracting patterns from existing work

Context

• Current directory: !pwd
• Git user: !git config user.name

gh availability is probed in the body, not here — see "GitHub CLI Availability".

Parameters

• $1: Project name (required)
• $2: Project type (python|node|rust|go|generic) - defaults to generic
• $3: --github flag to create GitHub repository
• $4: --private flag for private repository

GitHub CLI Availability

Run this check first, via the Bash tool — which gh:

Result	Report to the user	Effect on --github
exit 0, prints a path	GitHub CLI: available (<path>)	repo creation proceeds
exit 1, no output	GitHub CLI: not installed — install from https://cli.github.com/	skip repo creation, scaffold locally, and say so

Report the outcome either way — the availability answer is part of the skill's output, not an internal detail.

This probe deliberately lives in the body rather than in ## Context. which exits 1 when the tool is absent (silently — it writes nothing to stderr), and a non-zero exit from a Context backtick aborts the skill before its body runs, so /project:init was unusable on exactly the fresh machine it exists for (issue #2145). Run through the Bash tool, a non-zero exit is survivable and the answer is still reported. A find over a fixed set of bin directories was rejected as the alternative: it errors to stderr when a start directory is absent (the #1482 class, so it just moves the abort) and it cannot see installed via mise/asdf/nix/cargo, which would report a false "not installed".