ghboot

From empty folder to GitHub repo in one command.

ghboot is a small CLI tool and importable Python library that bootstraps a directory into a fully initialized git repository — with a .gitignore, a README.md, an initial commit, and a GitHub remote — interactively, in seconds.

What it does

ghboot /path/to/my-project

1. git init — prompts before initializing, skips if already a repo
2. .gitignore — auto-detects your project type (Python, Node, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java) and fetches the matching template from the GitHub API; falls back to a generic template if offline or undetected
3. README.md — creates a minimal # project-name file; skips if one exists
4. Initial commit — stages everything and commits with "Initial commit"
5. GitHub remote — uses the gh CLI to create the remote repo, prompt for name/owner/visibility, and push; skips gracefully if gh is not installed

Install

pip install ghboot

Or install in editable mode from source:

git clone https://github.com/you/ghboot
cd ghboot
pip install -e .

Usage

CLI

# bootstrap the current directory
ghboot

# bootstrap a specific path
ghboot ~/projects/my-new-thing

Interactive prompts guide you through each decision point:

Initialize git repo here? [Y/n]
Using Python .gitignore template.
Repo name [my-new-thing]:
Owner:
  1. yourname (personal)
  2. your-org
Select [1]:
Visibility [private/public, default: private]:
Created https://github.com/yourname/my-new-thing

Python API

from ghboot import bootstrap

# non-interactive, all defaults
bootstrap(path=".")

# interactive — prompts at each decision point
bootstrap(path=".", interactive=True)

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• git available in PATH
• gh CLI — optional, only needed for the GitHub remote step

What it explicitly does NOT do

• No LLM calls
• No framework-specific config
• No branch management beyond main/master
• No CI/CD setup

It does one thing and does it well. Anything beyond that is someone else's job.

License

MIT