workler init

Optionally create a starter rules file and prepare Workler's local directories.

You can use Workler directly in any Git repository without running init. This command is a convenience for projects that want a .workler file or prefer to create the local directory up front.

workler init

Behavior

Run anywhere inside a repository; Workler uses the Git top level:

1. Creates a starter .workler file with commented syntax examples (link, copy, and setup lines) — kept as-is if it already exists.
2. Creates the .worktrees/ directory.
3. Excludes .worktrees/ from git via .git/info/exclude — local to your machine, so your committed .gitignore is untouched.
4. Records the project as a workler root (git config workler.root and workler.name main).

Outside a git repository, the exclude line goes to .gitignore instead, with a warning.

In a plain folder that holds repositories (directly below it or one level deeper, like projects/api), init writes a project group .workler with one project <path> line per repository found. Hidden directories, node_modules, and linked git worktree checkouts are skipped, and so is a repository whose path cannot be written to .workler (it holds both " and ', a backslash, or a line break): init prints a skipped line for it; rename the folder to declare it. Two repositories whose paths the file could not tell apart (API next to api on a case-sensitive file system, or Projects next to projects/api) are handled the same way: the first one found is declared, and the other gets a skipped line naming the path it overlaps, because writing both would leave a file that does not parse. The folder is the project even when an outer repository encloses it. An existing .workler is left alone, even one that does not parse (init then prints a warning line with the parse error and still prepares the folder); repositories it does not declare are pointed out with a hint whose project lines are quoted the way the file needs them, so they paste as they are.

init is idempotent—run it as often as you like. It is never required for ordinary Git repositories.

Output

created .workler
ready   .worktrees
ignored .worktrees/ in .git/info/exclude

On a second run, created becomes exists.

In a group folder:

created .workler
project projects/api
project projects/web
project tools
ready   .worktrees
ignored .worktrees/ in .gitignore

Examples

cd my-project
workler init
echo "link node_modules" >> .workler
echo "copy .env" >> .workler
echo "setup pnpm install" >> .workler
workler add feature-a