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init

crabbox init onboards the current repository: it writes the minimal config that crabbox run needs, plus an optional GitHub Actions hydration workflow and an agent skill file. Run it once from the repo root.

crabbox init
crabbox init --detect
crabbox init --force
crabbox init --workflow .github/workflows/crabbox-test.yml

Files it writes

init generates three files, all relative to the repository root:

.crabbox.yaml                        repo defaults (profile, class, capacity, sync, env, ssh)
.github/workflows/crabbox.yml        Actions hydration workflow (optional)
.agents/skills/crabbox/SKILL.md      agent-facing skill instructions

Each path is configurable with the --config, --workflow, and --skill flags. Repeat --skill to write identical skills for multiple client discovery paths. By default init preflights every destination and writes nothing when any target already exists. Pass --force to regenerate and overwrite files in place.

.crabbox.yaml

The generated config is a starting template that includes:

  • profile: <repo-name>-check and class: beast;
  • a capacity block requesting spot with a most-available strategy and on-demand-after-120s fallback;
  • an actions block wired to the generated workflow (job: hydrate, runnerLabels: [crabbox], runnerVersion: latest, ephemeral: true);
  • a sync block with sane defaults: delete, gitSeed, and fingerprint enabled, a 15m timeout, warn/fail thresholds on file count and bytes, and an exclude list covering .cache, .turbo, dist, and node_modules;
  • env.allow with conservative defaults (CI, NODE_OPTIONS);
  • an ssh block (user: crabbox, port: "2222", fallbackPorts: ["22"]).

Open the file after init and adjust it to match the repo:

  • pick the right class for the workload;
  • add repo-specific sync.exclude patterns;
  • expand env.allow for project-specific tunables;
  • set sync.baseRef if the project's default branch is not the rsync base.

See Configuration for the full schema.

Detection (--detect)

With --detect, init scans common project markers and, when it can infer a broad check, writes a jobs.detected entry (a shell job with stop: auto) plus matching run.preflightTools. Detection is intentionally conservative:

  • go.mod adds go test ./..., including nested modules (each in its own subshell);
  • package.json uses the first present script among test:ci, test, check, or build (skipping the npm placeholder "no test specified"), with an install + run command picked from the lockfile or packageManager field for npm, pnpm, Yarn, or Bun. Nested packages without their own lockfile are skipped;
  • Cargo.toml adds cargo test and excludes target;
  • a root Makefile (or makefile) with a test target adds make test.

The generated job is plain repo-local YAML. Edit it when the real project check needs services, secrets, sharding, or a narrower command. If nothing matches, init prints a note and leaves the jobs section out — define jobs by hand.

.github/workflows/crabbox.yml

The generated workflow is a conservative starting point for repo-specific hydration, not a full replacement for CI. Edit it to install dependencies, start service containers, and warm caches before agents begin repeated crabbox run calls.

The workflow follows the contract used by crabbox actions hydrate:

  • it is workflow_dispatch-triggered and accepts the Crabbox lease ID (crabbox_id), a dynamic runner label (crabbox_runner_label), the hydration job identifier (crabbox_job, default hydrate), and a keep-alive window (crabbox_keep_alive_minutes, default 90);
  • the hydrate job runs on [self-hosted, <runner label>];
  • it writes a ready marker and env snapshot under $HOME/.crabbox/actions;
  • a final step keeps the job alive until the deadline or a stop marker appears (used for the self-hosted GitHub-runner fallback).

If the repo has no Actions hydration plans, delete the workflow. crabbox run works fine without it; hydration is optional.

.agents/skills/crabbox/SKILL.md

Repo-local agent instructions in the open Agent Skills format. The generated SKILL.md includes the required name and description frontmatter, then explains how an agent should operate Crabbox in this repo: warm a box early, reuse the returned slug for interactive checks while keeping the cbx_ id in scripts/logs, run checks with crabbox run --id <slug> -- <command>, inspect with crabbox ssh, and stop with crabbox stop <slug> when finished. When --detect finds a check, the skill also points agents at crabbox job run detected.

Edit this file to match how you want agents to operate in the repo. The skill is available to clients that discover .agents/skills/. Skill content is portable, but discovery directories are client-owned. Repeat --skill <path> when a repository needs the shared path plus a client-specific location; for example:

crabbox init --detect \
  --skill .agents/skills/crabbox/SKILL.md \
  --skill .claude/skills/crabbox/SKILL.md

Supplying any --skill replaces the implicit default. Every destination must be repository-relative and end in crabbox/SKILL.md; Crabbox rejects other paths because the declared skill name must match its parent directory.

See AI Agents and Harnesses for the boundary between a local agent skill and a one-shot repo harness.

Flags

--force             overwrite generated files
--detect            detect repo test commands and write a jobs.detected entry
--config <path>     repo config path (default .crabbox.yaml)
--workflow <path>   Actions workflow path (default .github/workflows/crabbox.yml)
--skill <path>      agent skill path; repeatable (default .agents/skills/crabbox/SKILL.md)

Re-running

Without --force, init will not touch existing files: it stops at the first target that already exists and reports it, so an established repo is never silently overwritten. With --force, it regenerates all three files.

After init

crabbox doctor              # validate the config
crabbox sync-plan           # preview what would sync
crabbox warmup              # acquire a lease
crabbox run -- pnpm test    # run a command
crabbox job run detected    # run the detected job, when generated

Related docs: