open-form init

npm create open-form@latest my-forms

create-open-form runs open-form init from @open-form-build/core with the arguments you pass. npm needs -- before flags: npm create open-form@latest my-forms -- --no-git. npx @open-form-build/cli init my-forms does the same.

Creates the workspace in my-forms, making the folder if it doesn't exist. Without a directory, an interactive run asks for one (default my-forms); a non-interactive run uses my-forms.

If the target isn't empty, an interactive run asks before writing and a non-interactive run stops unless you pass --force. Only .git and .DS_Store don't count, so a folder holding just a .env still asks.

Init never replaces a file you already have. It writes only the template files that are missing and lists the ones it kept. An existing package.json keeps its name, scripts and dependency versions; init only adds the scripts and dependencies it lacks. The one exception is the built-in skills: init refreshes them in .agents/skills/ and turns each .claude/skills/<name> into a link, as sync:skills does.

Flags

The new package.json depends on @open-form-build/core: forms import from it, and its open-form CLI runs the scripts.

Without --pm, init uses the package manager that launched it (from npm_config_user_agent) and falls back to pnpm. Either way, init installs with that package manager, prints the next steps for it, and writes its commands into the new AGENTS.md, README.md and themes/README.md: npx open-form … and npm run dev for npm, yarn open-form … and yarn dev for yarn, bunx open-form … and bun run dev for bun. Any of those files you already had stays as it is.

What it generates

my-forms/
├── forms/
│   └── contact/
│       └── index.tsx        # a starter contact form
├── themes/
│   └── README.md            # reference themes for new forms go here
├── .agents/
│   └── skills/              # the five agent skills
├── .claude/
│   └── skills/              # symlinks into .agents/skills/
├── open-form.config.ts      # project config
├── AGENTS.md                # agent rules
├── CLAUDE.md                # symlink to AGENTS.md
├── README.md
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── .env, .env.example       # --database postgres: the connection string, a placeholder
├── api/, vercel.json        # --vercel: the Vercel Function and its routes
└── .gitignore               # node_modules, dist, .open-form/, .env*, exported responses

• Database — an interactive run asks where responses go: SQLite (a file in .open-form/, nothing to set up) or Postgres. For Postgres, init adds pg to package.json, writes .env.example with a placeholder OPEN_FORM_DATABASE_URL, and asks for the connection string without echoing it. It goes into .env only (owner-readable, ignored by git), never into a committed file; leave it empty to add it later. Without a terminal, init takes it from OPEN_FORM_DATABASE_URL in the environment, if set. A .env that already sets it is left alone.
• Vercel — after Postgres, an interactive run asks whether you'll deploy to Vercel (no by default). Yes, or --vercel, writes api/index.ts and vercel.json as in Vercel, adds api/**/* to tsconfig.json and .vercel to .gitignore, and ends with the environment variables to set in the Vercel project. Files you already have are kept. --vercel with --database sqlite stops with an error: Vercel has no disk for SQLite.
• Time zone — init writes your computer's time zone into open-form.config.ts as timeZone (falling back to UTC), so form open and close dates mean the same in dev and in production. Change it if your forms run on another clock.
• Install — runs install with the chosen package manager. If it fails, init prints the last lines of output and lists the install in the next steps.
• Git — git init and a first commit, unless the folder is already inside a repository (a package in a monorepo, for example) or git isn't installed; then init says nothing about git. If the commit fails, usually because git has no user.name or user.email, init keeps the new repository and prints git's message. An existing .gitignore keeps its rules; init only adds the lines it's missing.
• On Windows, CLAUDE.md and the .claude/skills/ entries are copies instead of symlinks.

After init

Init ends with the next steps for its package manager:

cd my-forms
npm run dev

• cd is left out when you scaffold into the current folder. A path with spaces or other special characters is quoted, so you can paste the line as is.
• <pm> install is added before the last step when dependencies weren't installed: with --no-install, or when the install failed.
• If an existing package.json kept a dev script of its own, the last step is <exec> open-form dev instead (pnpm exec, npx, yarn or bunx).

Studio is at http://localhost:3000/studio. Then ask your agent: "Create a registration form for our meetup."