Existing Repository

Bob does not care that your directory already has a life. bob init writes the human-owned manifest first and waits for you to review the plan before it touches a generated file. On most existing repositories that plan is stack hygiene: docs, ignore files, and optional CI seeded once. Bob never owns src/, internal/ application packages, or the rest of your code.

It does not generate a better Next.js, FastAPI, or Cargo app. That work stays yours. What it adds is a contract an agent can read before editing.

Initialize the manifest

cd path/to/existing-app
bob init --write
bob apply
bob check

--write on init writes bob.yaml only. apply creates missing seeds. check confirms the lock and the seeds.

bob init detects the stack from marker files (package.json, tsconfig.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, go.mod, index.html, and the rest of the detected stacks) and defaults to the matching recipe:

Detected stack	Recipe	What Bob does
TypeScript / JS / Vue / Nuxt	ts-app, js-app, vue-app, nuxt-app	Seed-once hygiene. Package manager comes from the lockfile when present.
Python / Ruby / Lua / Rust / Swift / Elixir / static HTML	matching @2 recipe	Same seed-once contract. Never owns application source.
Plain Go (go.mod without a Cobra cmd/ + internal/cli layout)	go-hygiene	Same seed-once contract, plus a golangci-lint CI stub when GitHub Actions is on.
Go with cmd/ + internal/cli/root.go, or an existing recipe: go-agent-tool	go-agent-tool	The deep factory. --module is required unless go.mod already has a module path.

A stack recipe never conflicts with an existing file: any destination that already exists satisfies the seed, including a symlink or directory. Later edits keep bob check clean. Deleting a seeded file is ordinary drift; the next apply re-seeds it.

bob new --write refuses a stack recipe on an empty directory. Initialize the real project first (npm create, cargo init, swift package init, and so on), then run bob init. Passing a recipe that does not match the detected stack makes --write refuse unless you add --force.

What gets seeded

Every stack recipe at version 2 renders README.md, AGENTS.md, SECURITY.md, .gitignore, and .editorconfig when they are missing, plus stack-specific formatter or linter config where the recipe defines it. distribution.github_actions: true adds a CI stub. None of those paths land in bob.lock.

See the manifest reference for runtime.language, runtime.kind, and package-manager rules.

When the recipe is go-agent-tool

Use this path only when you actually want the Go/Cobra factory — not for a Go service that already has its own layout.

bob init . \
  --name acme-tool \
  --module github.com/acme/acme-tool \
  --description "Agent-ready Acme CLI" \
  --write

--write still writes only bob.yaml. Review bob plan before apply. Living files (README.md, CHANGELOG.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, go.mod, go.sum) are seed-once on @6. An existing README is not a conflict. Composition files (Taskfile.yml, cmd/…/main.go, internal/cli/root.go, CI) stay Bob-owned and can conflict.

Review the plan

bob plan
bob plan --content

--content includes bounded desired-content previews for create and update actions. It does not make the command writable.

Resolve a lock-owned conflict

Suppose a go-agent-tool or files plan wants Taskfile.yml and the directory already has a custom one. Bob reports conflict: it cannot prove ownership, the content differs, and it will not gamble.

Choose deliberately:

1. Keep the custom file. Apply stays refused while the recipe targets it.
2. Move the custom file to a reviewed backup, rerun bob plan, and let Bob create the desired file.
3. Make the file match the desired content and mode exactly. Bob classifies it as adopt and takes ownership from there.
4. Keep the human content and stop managing the path: add it to ownership.release in bob.yaml, then follow resolve-ownership-conflict (release_to_human → review_plan → apply_release). The path becomes seed-once and leaves bob.lock.

Never delete or overwrite a conflict merely to make the command green. Decide which system owns the path, then let the plan reflect that decision.

Stack hygiene plans do not take this branch. Their seeds never conflict.

Apply and check

When the complete plan is conflict-free:

bob plan --json
bob apply --expect-plan-digest sha256:<64-lowercase-hex> --json
bob check
git diff --stat

The guarded apply fresh-plans while holding Bob's apply lock and writes nothing if the reviewed identity is stale. Review the resulting repository before committing.

For a declared file tree instead of hygiene, see Build any repository. For a new Go/Cobra CLI from an empty directory, see Getting Started.