ward init

Initialize the Ward configuration directory

The ward init command creates the necessary configuration directory and files for Ward in your home directory.

Usage

ward init [flags]

What It Creates

Running ward init creates the ~/.ward directory with the following structure:

• config.yaml - Main configuration file for customizing scan behavior
• rules/ - Directory for custom security rules (YAML format)
• reports/ - Directory where scan reports are saved
• store/ - Internal storage for scan results

Options

--force · boolean · default: "false"

Overwrite existing config files if they already exist

Examples

Basic Initialization

Initialize Ward for the first time:

ward init

Example output:

  Initialized Ward configuration.

  Created:
    ~/.ward/config.yaml       main config
    ~/.ward/rules/            custom rules
    ~/.ward/reports/          scan reports
    ~/.ward/store/            result store

  Edit config.yaml to customize scan behaviour.
  Drop .yaml rule files into rules/ to add custom rules.

Force Overwrite

Reinitialize and overwrite existing configuration:

ward init --force

This will replace your existing config.yaml and recreate the directory structure, useful for resetting to defaults.

Next Steps

After initialization:

1. Edit ~/.ward/config.yaml to customize scan settings
2. Add custom security rules by placing YAML files in ~/.ward/rules/
3. Run your first scan with ward scan <path>