cxx-init

A small personal tool for creating clean, modern C++ projects without repeating the same setup work.

Install

uv tool install cxx-init

Alternatively, use pipx:

pipx install cxx-init

Create a project

cxx init hello
cd hello
cmake --workflow --preset dev

The generated project uses normal C++ tooling directly and does not depend on cxx after creation.

Upgrade or uninstall the tool with:

uv tool upgrade cxx-init
uv tool uninstall cxx-init

Requirements

cxx requires Python 3.10 or newer. Generated projects require CMake 3.25 or newer, Ninja, and a C++23 compiler.

Design priorities

1. Personal developer experience first.
2. Small, readable implementation.
3. Minimal generated files.
4. No hidden host mutation.
5. No build-system wrapper.
6. No network requirement during project creation.
7. Prefer boring, inspectable code over framework-heavy abstractions.

Scope

The current product creates one canonical app project. Additional artifact types remain deferred until real usage demonstrates a need for them:

lib
header-only

Initial generated projects use:

C++23
Modern target-centric CMake
CMake Presets / Workflow Presets
Ninja
clangd
clang-format
clang-tidy
CTest
ASan / UBSan where supported
compile_commands.json

Dependency managers, C++26, Modules, ROS, CUDA, benchmarking and fuzzing are intentionally deferred.

Repository documents

• AGENTS.md — rules for Codex and other coding agents.
• docs/architecture.md — architecture and boundaries.
• docs/implementation-plan.md — current implementation sequence.

Development

Build the wheel and source distribution with:

uv build

Run the black-box test suite with:

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v