Creating a project

Running nub init scaffolds a minimal TypeScript project that runs and typechecks immediately. It writes five files, initializes git, and installs the two type packages the editor needs:

$ nub init -y
created my-app
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  index.ts
  .gitignore
  README.md
  .git/ initialized

devDependencies:
+ @nubjs/types@0.4.13
+ @types/node@26.1.1

next: nub index.ts

The scaffold has zero runtime dependencies — the entry file runs right away:

$ nub index.ts
Hello from Nub

What it writes

The manifest declares the project as a Nub project from birth — the same packageManager pin and devEngines range that nub pm pin writes — and carries the two type packages as devDependencies:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "type": "module",
  "packageManager": "nub@0.4.13",
  "devEngines": {
    "packageManager": { "name": "nub", "version": "^0.4.13", "onFail": "warn" }
  },
  "scripts": {
    "start": "nub index.ts"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@nubjs/types": "^0.4.13",
    "@types/node": "^26"
  }
}

The tsconfig targets Node's own TypeScript semantics — nodenext resolution, verbatimModuleSyntax, strict mode, noEmit (Nub handles transpilation) — and wires the installed type packages:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "nodenext",
    "moduleResolution": "nodenext",
    "target": "es2024",
    "lib": ["es2024"],
    "types": ["node", "@nubjs/types"],
    "strict": true,
    "noEmit": true
    // ...
  }
}

The generated project is not locked to Nub: everything runs on plain Node too (the devEngines policy is warn, not a hard block), and swapping the start script to a plain node invocation is the only change a non-Nub user would make.

Prompts

In a terminal, nub init asks three questions — project name, TypeScript or JavaScript, and whether to initialize git. Every prompt has a sensible default; -y skips them all. Outside a terminal (CI, piped stdin) the defaults apply automatically, so the command never hangs.

Flags

Existing files

When any target file already exists, init refuses and names the conflicts — nothing is partially written:

$ nub init -y
Error: nub: refusing to overwrite existing files: package.json, tsconfig.json, index.ts, .gitignore, README.md
  (pass --force to overwrite)

Passing --force overwrites the listed files. An existing .git/ is never touched — init skips git init inside an existing repository.

Templates

Framework templates are not init's job. The command takes no arguments and points template scaffolding at the ecosystem's create-* convention:

$ nub init vite
Error: nub: `init` does not accept arguments (got "vite")
  (to scaffold from a template: nubx create-vite)