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init Command

What It’s For

Set up a workspace so Arashi can track repositories and worktrees.

What It Does

  • Creates Arashi configuration in the current project.
  • Offers to bootstrap a Git repository when you run it from a non-repository directory in an interactive terminal.
  • Prepares workspace metadata used by other commands.
  • Makes the workspace ready for repository registration.

Usage

Terminal window
arashi init [options]

Key Options

  • --repos-dir <path> set a custom repos directory (default ./repos).
  • --worktrees-dir <path> set a custom worktree base directory (default .arashi/worktrees).
  • --force overwrite an existing Arashi config (with backup).
  • --no-discover skip automatic repository discovery.
  • --dry-run preview changes without writing files.
  • --verbose print detailed initialization steps.

Examples

Terminal window
# Standard initialization
arashi init


# Run from a parent directory, then enter '.' at the prompt to initialize the current directory
arashi init


# Run from a parent directory, then enter 'my-arashi-repo' at the prompt to create a child repo
arashi init


# Use a custom repositories directory
arashi init --repos-dir ../workspace-repos


# Use a custom worktree base directory
arashi init --worktrees-dir ../workspace-worktrees


# Reinitialize safely and preview file changes
arashi init --force --dry-run

Notes

  • Run this command inside an existing Git repository root, or from a parent directory in an interactive terminal when you want Arashi to create the repository for you.
  • In bootstrap mode, the repository target prompt accepts only . or a direct child directory name such as my-arashi-repo.
  • If init is run outside a Git repository without an interactive terminal, it exits with guidance instead of prompting.
  • init creates .arashi/config.json and hook templates under .arashi/hooks/.
  • init sets worktreesDir to .arashi/worktrees by default.
  • It updates .gitignore to exclude the configured repositories directory.
  • It also adds the normalized managed worktree directory entry to .gitignore when the location is default or a safe repository-relative subdirectory.
  • Broad locations (././) and parent-traversal locations (../ variants) are not auto-added to .gitignore.