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mops init

Initialize a new Motoko project or package in the current directory.

mops init

Exits without changes if mops.toml already exists.

Interactive prompts​

1. Project type​

Select type:
› Project (I just want to use mops packages in my project)
  Package (I plan to publish this package on mops)
  • Project — you want to consume mops packages. No [package] section is written.
  • Package — you plan to publish to the mops registry. Prompts for metadata and creates starter files.

2. Package metadata (package only)​

  • Name — defaults to the kebab-cased directory name
  • Description
  • Repository URL
  • Keywords — space-separated
  • License — MIT or Apache-2.0
  • Copyright owner — written into the license file
  • Add example test file? — defaults to yes, creates test/lib.test.mo

The version is initialized to 1.0.0.

3. GitHub workflow​

Setup GitHub workflow? (run `mops test` on push)

When accepted, adds .github/workflows/mops-test.yml that runs mops test on push to main/master and on every pull request.

What it creates​

  1. dfx.json — sets defaults.build.packtool = "mops sources" if dfx.json is present. Existing indentation is preserved.
  2. mops.toml — [package] metadata for packages. For projects, [dependencies] is populated with the default package set keyed on your dfx version (from dfx.json or dfx --version on PATH). Older dfx versions 0.9.0–0.27.0 resolve to the base release bundled with that dfx. For any other version, or when dfx cannot be detected, the latest core is used.
  3. src/lib.mo — starter module (package only, when src/ doesn't exist).
  4. test/lib.test.mo — starter test (package only, when you opted in and test/ doesn't exist).
  5. LICENSE (and NOTICE for Apache-2.0) — package only, filled with the current year and copyright owner.
  6. README.md — package only, with placeholders replaced by the package name.
  7. .github/workflows/mops-test.yml — when the workflow prompt was accepted.
  8. .mops and .migrations-*/ appended to .gitignore (created if missing).

Existing LICENSE, README.md, and workflow files are not overwritten.

For projects, mops install runs at the end to fetch the default packages.

Migrating from Vessel​

If vessel.dhall exists, mops init reads it and copies the listed dependencies into the new mops.toml. Dev-dependencies are not migrated. Skipped when --yes is used.

Options​

--yes, -y​

Skip prompts and initialize as a project with defaults: no [package] section, no starter files, GitHub workflow enabled, default packages installed per the rules in What it creates. Useful for CI and scripted scaffolding.

mops init --yes