chico-ai init

Set up chico-ai for the first time.

Creates ~/.chico/config.yaml and ~/.chico/state.json. Safe to run more than once — exits cleanly if already initialized.

Usage

chico-ai init [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Default	Description
`--source`	—	Source type to configure. Currently only `github` is supported.
`--repo`	—	GitHub repository in `owner/repo` format. Required when `--source` is set.
`--path`	—	Directory path inside the repository to fetch files from. Required when `--source` is set.
`--source-prefix`	same as `--path`	Prefix stripped from each file's path when mapping it to the local target. Defaults to `--path` if not set.
`--target`	`kiro`	Provider name to sync files into.
`--level`	`global`	Kiro level: `global` writes to `~/.kiro/`. `project` writes to `{cwd}/.kiro/` and records the full path in the config so that scheduled syncs and runs from other directories always target the correct location.
`--branch`	`main`	Branch to read files from.

Examples

Minimal — empty config to edit manually

chico-ai init

Creates ~/.chico/config.yaml with empty providers and sources. Edit the file manually to add your repositories.

Full — pre-populated and ready to use

chico-ai init \
  --source github \
  --repo Chico-inc/agents-patterns \
  --path patterns \
  --source-prefix patterns/ \
  --target kiro \
  --branch master

This writes a ready-to-use ~/.chico/config.yaml. No manual editing needed — just run chico-ai sync next.

Understanding `--path` vs `--source-prefix`

Given a repository with this structure:

patterns/
  steering/
    product.md
  rules/
    coding.md

--path patterns — tells chico-ai to only look inside the patterns/ directory.
--source-prefix patterns/ — strips patterns/ from each file path when writing locally, so patterns/steering/product.md becomes steering/product.md inside ~/.kiro/.

If you omit --source-prefix, it defaults to the value of --path, which is almost always what you want.

What gets created

~/.chico/
  config.yaml   # your configuration
  state.json    # sync state (managed automatically)

Next steps

After initializing, run:

chico-ai plan    # preview what will change
chico-ai apply   # apply the changes
# or
chico-ai sync    # plan + apply in one step