init

Initialize moon in a repository and scaffold configuration files

The moon init command will initialize moon into a repository and scaffold necessary config files by creating a .moon folder in the destination directory.

$ moon init

# In another directory
$ moon init ./app

How it works

When you run moon init, the command will:

1. Prompt for confirmation - Ask if you want to initialize moon in the target directory (unless --yes is used)
2. Detect VCS provider - Automatically detect if you’re using GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket based on repository files
3. Create configuration directory - Create either .moon or .config/moon directory
4. Generate workspace config - Create a workspace.yml file with sensible defaults including:
   • Project globs (defaults to packages/*)
   • VCS settings (provider and default branch)
5. Update .gitignore - Append moon cache and docker directories to .gitignore
6. Display success message - Show helpful links to documentation and community

Arguments

• [dest] - Destination to initialize and scaffold into. Defaults to . (current working directory).

Options

• --force - Overwrite existing config files if they exist. If not provided and moon is already initialized, you’ll be prompted to confirm overwrite.
• --minimal - Generate minimal configurations with sane defaults and skip most prompts.
• --yes - Skip all prompts and use default values. Useful for automated scripts and CI environments.

Examples

Basic initialization

Initialize moon in the current directory:

$ moon init

Output:

? Initialize moon into /path/to/project? (Y/n)

✓ Successfully initialized moon in /path/to/project!

  Learn more: https://moonrepo.dev/docs
  Need help?  https://discord.gg/qCh9MEynv2

Initialize in a specific directory

Initialize moon in a subdirectory:

$ moon init ./monorepo

Skip prompts

Use the --yes flag for non-interactive initialization:

$ moon init --yes

Force overwrite existing configuration

If moon is already initialized, use --force to overwrite:

$ moon init --force

Generated files

After running moon init, you’ll have the following structure:

.
├── .moon/
│   └── workspace.yml
└── .gitignore (updated)

The generated workspace.yml will include:

projects:
  - 'packages/*'

vcs:
  provider: 'github'  # or gitlab, bitbucket
  defaultBranch: 'main'

And .gitignore will be updated with:

# moon
.moon/cache
.moon/docker

Next steps

After initializing moon:

1. Configure your projects in workspace.yml
2. Add project configurations (moon.yml) to individual projects
3. Define tasks for your projects
4. Run moon sync to synchronize the workspace