init

Bootstrap Clonio in the current working directory by ensuring APP_KEY is available for encryption.

Usage

clonio init [--force]

Options

What It Does

init checks for an APP_KEY in the following order:

1. System environment variable — APP_KEY already set in the shell / process environment
2. Local .env file — .env in the current working directory

If a valid key is found, initialisation is complete and no file is written.

If no key is found, a new key is generated and written to .env in the current directory. File permissions are set to 0600 (owner read/write only).

Examples

Key already set in the shell:

$ clonio init

  Checking for APP_KEY ...

  ✓  APP_KEY found in environment — no .env file needed.

No key found — creates .env:

$ clonio init

  Checking for APP_KEY ...

  No APP_KEY found. Generating .env with a new key ...

  ✓  Created .env with APP_KEY in /path/to/project

Key found in .env:

$ clonio init

  Checking for APP_KEY ...

  ✓  APP_KEY found in .env — ready.

Force Regeneration

When --force is passed and a key already exists, Clonio warns that existing encrypted passwords in clonio.json will become unreadable:

$ clonio init --force

  APP_KEY already exists. --force was passed — regenerating.

  ⚠  Warning: regenerating the key will make all existing encrypted
     passwords in clonio.json unreadable. You will need to re-enter
     them via `connection:update`.

  Regenerate key? [yes/no] (no)

Defaults to no. If confirmed, the .env file is updated with the new key.

.env File Handling

.gitignore Management

After any successful initialisation, Clonio checks whether .env and clonio.json are protected by .gitignore. Both files contain secrets (the encryption key and encrypted database passwords) and must never be committed.

When .gitignore exists: Clonio automatically appends any missing entries and reports what it added:

  ✓  Added to .gitignore: clonio.json
  ✓  Added to .gitignore: .env

If both entries are already present, nothing is printed and the file is not modified.

When no .gitignore exists: Clonio prints a note without creating the file:

  ℹ  No .gitignore found. Add .env and clonio.json to avoid committing secrets.

This check runs on every init invocation — regardless of whether a key was newly generated or already present.

Production Environments

In production, set APP_KEY as a system environment variable (Docker secrets, Kubernetes secrets, CI/CD env vars). init completes immediately without writing any file.

Relation to Other Commands

• connection:add, connection:update, and connection:test all require APP_KEY to be present for encrypting and decrypting passwords. Run clonio init once per project directory before using those commands.
• init does not create clonio.json. That file is created by connection:add.

Exit Codes