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charter init bootstraps a repository for Charter. It uses a create-missing-only approach: it only creates files that do not already exist, never overwrites, never deletes, and stays fully offline. Repeated runs become no-ops once all files are present, making it safe to use in scripting and CI.

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Usage

charter init creating files

charter init output — detected stack and created files

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Flags

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string
Target directory to scaffold. Defaults to the repository root when one is found, otherwise the current directory.
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boolean
Print the planned file actions without writing anything. Use this to preview exactly what init would create before committing.
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boolean
Skip prompts for non-interactive or CI use. Because init never overwrites existing files, this flag is effectively a no-op in most runs — it is accepted for scripting compatibility.
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standard | strict
Policy profile written into the generated charter.yaml. Defaults to standard.
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string
Comma-separated agent surfaces to request, such as claude,cursor. Controls whether agent-specific config files like .claude/settings.json are scaffolded. When omitted, Charter auto-detects the agent surface and falls back to claude if nothing is detected. AGENTS.md is always created regardless of this flag.

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Files It Creates

The following files are created only when they are absent:

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After Init

1

Review the generated files

Open AGENTS.md and tailor the project summary, commands section, and edit boundaries to your repo. The scaffolded content is intentionally generic.
2

Run charter doctor

This gives you your baseline score. A blank repo typically passes 80 immediately after init.
3

Commit the new files

Add the scaffolded files to version control so future scans and CI runs see them.
A blank Go repo scores ≥ 80 immediately after charter init — measured at 95 in testing. The residual findings are typically AE-ENV-001 (no toolchain file) and AE-CI-002 (CI not yet configured).

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Exit codes

Policy profiles

What standard and strict change in the generated charter.yaml.

Adopt in an existing repo

Bring Charter into a repo that already has agent context files.

doctor

Score the repo after scaffolding to get a baseline.