> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.crewship.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Init

> Bootstrap the first admin user on a fresh Crewship instance and print a CLI token.

# crewship init

Create the very first admin user on a fresh Crewship instance. Only works against an empty database — once a user exists, the bootstrap endpoint refuses to run again. The command returns a CLI token so you can authenticate immediately without going through the web UI.

```bash theme={null}
crewship init --email <email> --name "<full name>" [flags]
```

This is the unauthenticated counterpart to `crewship setup`. Typical order on a new install:

1. `crewship init` — creates the OWNER admin and prints a token.
2. `crewship login --token <printed-token>` — saves the token to `~/.crewship/cli-config.yaml`.
3. `crewship setup` — deploys a crew template and your first adapter.

## Flags

| Flag                   | Default                  | Purpose                                                                                                  |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `--server <url>`       | `http://localhost:8080`  | URL of the Crewship server to initialise.                                                                |
| `--email <email>`      | (required)               | Admin email address. Becomes the OWNER user.                                                             |
| `--name "<full name>"` | (required)               | Admin full name (display name in the UI).                                                                |
| `--password <pw>`      | (prompted, hidden input) | Admin password. Minimum 8 characters. When omitted, the command reads it from the terminal without echo. |
| `--password-stdin`     | `false`                  | Read admin password from stdin (preferred for CI / scripts — avoids argv leak).                          |

`--email` and `--name` are hard-required. `--password` is prompted when missing; passing it on the command line is convenient for scripted installs but leaks into shell history — prefer the prompt or pipe via `--password "$(cat secret.txt)"`.

## Example

```bash theme={null}
crewship init \
  --server http://localhost:8080 \
  --email admin@acme-engineering.com \
  --name "Pavel Srba"
# Password (min 8 chars): ********
# ✓ Crewship initialized!
#
#   Admin:     admin@acme-engineering.com
#   Workspace: w_abc123
#   CLI Token: crewship_cli_xyz789…
#
# To start using the CLI:
#
#   crewship login --server http://localhost:8080 --token crewship_cli_xyz789…
```

Calls `POST /api/v1/bootstrap` and prints the returned `user_id`, `workspace_id`, and `cli_token`. The printed `crewship login --token …` line is ready to copy-paste.

## Common errors

* **`--email is required`** / **`--name is required`** — both are mandatory.
* **`password must be at least 8 characters`** — server-side rule, enforced client-side first so you don't waste a round-trip.
* **`bootstrap request failed: HTTP 403: Already initialized — …`** — the database already has a user. `init` is a one-shot. Use `crewship login` and (if you've lost UI access) `crewship admin reset-password` instead.
* **`bootstrap request failed (is the server running at http://localhost:8080?)`** — the server didn't answer on `--server`. Check `crewship start` is running or pass the right URL.

## See also

* [`crewship login`](/cli/login) — log the saved token in for subsequent commands.
* [`crewship setup`](/cli/setup) — deploy the first crew template after init.
* [`crewship seed`](/cli/seed) — for dev/demo data, `seed` does its own bootstrap on an empty DB.
* [Admin CLI](/guides/admin-cli) — `crewship admin reset-password` for the locked-out case.