Init - Baml — ContextQMD

The init command is used to initialize a project with BAML. It sets up the necessary directory structure and configuration files to get you started with BAML.

Usage

baml-cli init [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Description	Default
`--dest <PATH>`	Specifies where to initialize the BAML project	Current directory (`.`)
`--client-type <TYPE>`	Type of BAML client to generate	Guesses based on where the CLI was installed from (`python/pydantic` for pip, `typescript` for npm, etc.)
`--openapi-client-type <TYPE>`	The OpenAPI client generator to run, if `--client-type=openapi`	None

Description

The init command performs the following actions:

Creates a new BAML project structure in ${DEST}/baml_src.
Creates a generators.baml file in the baml_src directory with initial configuration.
Includes some additional examples files in baml_src to get you started.

Client Types

The --client-type option allows you to specify the type of BAML client to generate. Available options include:

python/pydantic: For Python clients using Pydantic
typescript: For TypeScript clients
go: For native Go clients (recommended for Go projects)
ruby/sorbet: For Ruby clients using Sorbet
rest/openapi: For REST clients using OpenAPI

If not specified, it uses the default from the runtime CLI configuration.

OpenAPI Client Types

When using --client-type=rest/openai, you can specify the OpenAPI client generator using the --openapi-client-type option. Some examples include:

go
java
php
ruby
rust
csharp

For a full list of supported OpenAPI client types, refer to the OpenAPI Generator documentation.

Examples

Initialize a BAML project in the current directory with default settings:
```
baml init
```
Initialize a BAML project in a specific directory:
```
baml init --dest /path/to/my/project
```
Initialize a BAML project for Python with Pydantic:
```
baml init --client-type python/pydantic
```
Initialize a BAML project for OpenAPI with a Go client:
```
baml init --client-type openapi --openapi-client-type go
```
Initialize a BAML project with native Go client (recommended):
```
baml init --client-type go
```

Notes

If the destination directory already contains a baml_src directory, the command will fail to prevent overwriting existing projects.
The command attempts to infer the OpenAPI generator command based on what's available in your system PATH. It checks for openapi-generator, openapi-generator-cli, or falls back to using npx @openapitools/openapi-generator-cli.
After initialization, follow the instructions provided in the console output for language-specific setup steps.