Init Command

The init command sets up Codegen in your repository, creating necessary configuration files and pulling documentation locally.

Usage

codegen init [OPTIONS]

Options

• --repo-name: The name of the repository (defaults to current git repo name)
• --organization-name: The name of the organization (defaults to git organization)

Directory Structure

When you run init, Codegen creates a .codegen directory in your repository with the following structure:

.codegen/
├── config.toml         # Configuration file with repo and org info
├── codemods/          # Your codemods live here
│   └── my_codemod.py  # Created via `codegen create my-codemod`
├── docs/              # Local documentation for offline access
│   ├── api/
│   ├── examples/
│   └── tutorials/
└── prompts/           # Generated system prompts for AI assistance

Only config.toml and the codemods/ directory are tracked in Git. The rest of the .codegen directory is automatically added to your .gitignore.

This setup allows you to:

• Track and version your codemods with your repository
• Use codebase.reset() without losing progress on your codemod implementation
• Share codemods with your team through version control

Recommended Structure

We recommend keeping your Codegen codemods in the .codegen/codemods/ directory (this is the default when using codegen create). This:

• Keeps transformation code separate from your application code
• Makes it easy to find and manage all your codemods
• Ensures consistent behavior with codebase.reset()

Local Documentation

Codegen pulls documentation and examples locally to:

• Provide offline access to guides and references
• Enable AI to give contextual help about your codebase
• Allow searching through examples and tutorials

Requirements

The command must be run from within a git repository. If you’re not in one, you’ll need to:

git init
git remote add origin <your-repo-url>
codegen init

Examples

Initialize with default settings (uses git repo info):

codegen init

Initialize with custom organization and repo:

codegen init --organization-name "my-org" --repo-name "my-project"

Next Steps

After initializing:

1. Create your first codemod:

codegen create my-function . -d "describe what you want to do"

Note: The second parameter (.) specifies the path where the codemod should be created. This is required.

2. Run it:

codegen run my-function --apply-local

Updating

You can run init again to update your local documentation and configuration:

codegen init

This will refresh the .codegen directory while preserving your existing configuration.