New Julia Project

New Julia package

Create a fresh Julia package via PkgTemplates: Project.toml (version 0.1.0), a git repo with Julia-aware ignore rules, default src/ + test/, MIT license, README, and a custom GitHub Actions CI workflow.

Inputs

• project name (required) — the package name.

Tool preference

Prefer language-native tooling (PkgTemplates — it generates the package, git repo, .gitignore, and MIT license itself, with author and year from git config); use npx generators (npx license) only on the partially-set-up path where PkgTemplates cannot run; fall back to the bundled reference/mit-license.txt only when neither is available.

Partially set-up projects

PkgTemplates refuses to generate into an existing non-empty path, so a partially set-up package skips generation instead:

• If the folder exists and contains a Project.toml, skip steps 1–3 (just

cd into the folder) and apply the remaining steps, adding only what's missing: ensure the git repo exists (git init if not), ensure .gitignore covers the Julia rules from step 2's ignore list plus .vscode/ (append missing entries, never replace the file), and if LICENSE is missing generate it with npx license MIT (year and author from git config; fall back to reference/mit-license.txt with ` → current year followed by git config user.name`), committing it as "Added MIT License".

• An artifact that already exists (LICENSE, README, workflow) is kept as-is,

not overwritten; skip that step and its commit.

• Only commit a step that actually changed something, keeping the same commit

messages.

• If the folder is non-empty but has no Project.toml, stop and ask the user

how to proceed.

Steps

Run from the directory where the package should be created. Requires git on PATH and julia with the PkgTemplates package installed.

1. PkgTemplates refuses to generate into an existing path. If ``

already exists as an empty folder, remove it first so PkgTemplates can recreate it — rmdir (fails on a non-empty folder, which is the point). If the folder exists and is non-empty, see "Partially set-up projects" above.

1. Generate the package. Substitute `` in both places:

``bash julia --project="" -e 'using PkgTemplates; PkgTemplates.Template(; interactive=false, dir=".", plugins=[ProjectFile(; version=v"0.1.0"), !Readme, License(; name="MIT"), Git(; ignore=["*.jl.cov", "*.jl.*.cov", "*.jl.mem", "docs/build/", "docs/site/", ".vscode/"]), !CompatHelper, !TagBot, !GitHubActions, !Dependabot])("")' ``

The !Plugin entries disable the named default plugins (the stock Readme and GitHubActions output — this skill supplies its own). The License plugin generates the MIT LICENSE with author and year from git config, and the Git plugin's ignore list (including .vscode/) becomes the .gitignore. PkgTemplates already inits the git repo and makes the first commit, which includes the license.

1. cd . Spot-check LICENSE — the copyright line should read

Copyright (c) .

1. README: echo "# " > README.md, then

git add README.md && git commit -m "Added default README.md".

1. CI workflow — copy templates/ci.yml (this skill dir) to

.github/workflows/ci.yml.

The template uses: pins (@v4, @v2, @v1) are a baseline and may be stale. Before committing, resolve the latest stable major version of each action and update its uses::

• actions/checkout
• julia-actions/setup-julia
• julia-actions/cache
• julia-actions/julia-buildpkg
• julia-actions/julia-runtest

Resolve with git ls-remote (no gh, no auth):

``bash git ls-remote --tags --refs https://github.com/julia-actions/setup-julia 'v*' ``

Take the highest stable semver (ignore tags containing -), pin to its major — v2.6.0 → julia-actions/setup-julia@v2. If git ls-remote is unavailable, read the resolved tag from https://github.com///releases/latest. Leave the Julia version: '1' input as-is (it tracks the latest stable Julia 1.x).

Commit: git add --all && git commit -m "Added GitHub Actions CI workflow".

CI behavior (encoded in the template)

• Triggers: push to master, develop, release/**; and all pull requests.
• build-and-test job: every trigger — julia-buildpkg (compile/build) +

julia-runtest (Pkg.test).

• lint-and-format job: gated by if: github.event_name == 'pull_request',

so the JuliaFormatter format check and the JET static lint run only on pull requests.

Verify the workflow with act

Run the CI workflow locally in Docker with act before pushing — when the tooling is present. First check for it:

command -v act && docker info >/dev/null 2>&1

If act is not on PATH or Docker is not running, skip this whole section — it is optional validation, not a failure; state in the final report that act verification was skipped and why. Otherwise, from the package root:

1. act -l — list the jobs act resolves.
2. act push — only build-and-test runs; lint-and-format is skipped by the

PR gate.

1. act pull_request — both jobs run.

The medium image (catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest) is sufficient; pin it non-interactively with -P ubuntu-latest=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest. Confirm step 2 skips lint/format and step 3 includes them.

Report the created package path, any steps skipped because the package was already partially set up, and the act results (or that act verification was skipped and why).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: jambolo
• Source: jambolo/claude-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.