init

Usage: quarto-coursegen init [OPTIONS] [COURSE_DIR]

Bootstrap a new Quarto course project directory.

Copies the bundled skeleton files, Jinja2 templates, and language files into the target directory, creating it if necessary. Nothing is overwritten unless --force is given.

What gets created

Path	Description
`course.yaml`	Starter course definition — edit this first
`Makefile`	Rendering targets (`make website`, `make slides`, …)
`styles/custom.scss`	Website HTML theme stub
`styles/slides.scss`	reveal.js theme stub
`.gitignore`	Ignores `docs/`, Quarto caches, `.venv/`
`templates/*.j2`	All built-in Jinja2 templates — ready for local customisation
`lang/*.yaml`	Built-in language files (`en.yaml`, `de.yaml`) — add or override strings

Note

The Makefile contains only rendering targets (make website, make slides, make handouts, make assignments, make all, make clean). There is no make generate target — generation is handled by the quarto-coursegen generate CLI command.

Usage

# Initialise the current directory
quarto-coursegen init

# Create and initialise a named directory
quarto-coursegen init my-course

# Preview what would be created without writing anything
quarto-coursegen init my-course --dry-run

# Overwrite files that already exist
quarto-coursegen init my-course --force

Options

Argument / Option	Short	Description
`COURSE_DIR`		Directory to initialise (default: current directory)
`--force`	`-f`	Overwrite existing files
`--dry-run`		Print planned actions without writing any files

Typical workflow after `init`

quarto-coursegen init my-course
cd my-course

# Install the fontawesome Quarto extension (used by built-in templates)
quarto add quarto-ext/fontawesome

# Edit course.yaml
$EDITOR course.yaml

# Scaffold .qmd stubs
quarto-coursegen generate

# Render
make website

Local template customisation

Because init copies the built-in templates into templates/ in your project, you can customise them freely without modifying the package. The generate command automatically searches templates/ in your project before falling back to the built-in package templates.

See Templates & Filters for details.