diff --git a/bpkg-init b/bpkg-init
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..8814ae0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bpkg-init
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+lib/init/init.sh
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/init/LICENSE.md b/lib/init/LICENSE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2089872
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/init/LICENSE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+The MIT License (MIT)
+
+Copyright (c) 2014 Ben Kogan
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/lib/init/Makefile b/lib/init/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..871bd75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/init/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+
+BIN ?= bpkg-init
+PREFIX ?= /usr/local
+
+install:
+	cp bpkg-init.sh $(PREFIX)/bin/$(BIN)
+
+uninstall:
+	rm -f $(PREFIX)/bin/$(BIN)
+
+bpkg-init.sh:
+	./bpkg-init.sh
+
+.PHONY: bpkg-init.sh
+
diff --git a/lib/init/README.md b/lib/init/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3aacf30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/init/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+bpkg-init
+=========
+
+Interactively generate a `package.json` for your [bpkg][bp]. Code, format,
+and instructions based heavily on [jwerle's][jw] [clib-init][cb].
+
+[bp]: https://github.com/bpkg/bpkg/
+[jw]: https://github.com/jwerle/
+[cb]: https://github.com/jwerle/clib-init/
+
+install
+-------
+
+With [bpkg](https://github.com/bpkg/bpkg):
+
+```sh
+$ bpkg install benkogan/bpkg-init
+```
+
+From source:
+
+```sh
+$ git clone git@github.com:benkogan/bpkg-init.git /tmp/bpkg-init
+$ cd /tmp/bpkg-init
+$ make install
+```
+
+usage
+-----
+
+Simply invoke `bpkg init` and you wil be prompted with a series
+of questions about the generation of your `package.json`. Most options
+have sane defaults.
+
+This will walk you through initializing the bpkg `package.json` file.
+It will prompt you for the bare minimum that is needed and provide
+defaults.
+
+See github.com/bpkg/bpkg for more information on defining the bpkg
+`package.json` file.
+
+You can press `^C` anytime to quit this prompt. The `package.json` file
+will only be written upon completion.
+
+```sh
+$ bpkg init
+
+This will walk you through initializing the bpkg `package.json` file.
+It will prompt you for the bare minimum that is needed and provide
+defaults.
+
+See github.com/bpkg/bpkg for more information on defining the bpkg
+`package.json` file.
+
+You can press ^C anytime to quit this prompt. The `package.json` file
+will only be written upon completion.
+
+name: (bpkg-init)
+
+...
+```
+
+license
+-------
+
+MIT
diff --git a/lib/init/init.sh b/lib/init/init.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..01fe727
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/init/init.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,240 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+## sets optional variable from environment
+opt () { eval "if [ -z "\${$1}" ]; then ${1}=${2}; fi";  }
+
+## output usage
+usage () {
+  echo ""
+  echo "  usage: bpkg-init [-hV]"
+  echo ""
+}
+
+## prompt with question and store result in variable
+prompt () {
+  local var="$1"
+  local q="$2"
+  local value=""
+  printf "%s" "${q}"
+
+  {
+    trap "exit -1" SIGINT SIGTERM
+    read -r value;
+    value="${value//\"/\'}";
+  } > /dev/null 2>&1
+  if [ ! -z "${value}" ]; then
+    eval "${var}"=\"${value}\"
+  fi
+}
+
+## alert user of hint
+hint () {
+  {
+    echo
+    printf "  hint: %s\n" "$@"
+    echo
+  } >&2
+}
+
+## output error
+error () {
+  {
+    printf "error: %s\n" "${@}"
+  } >&2
+}
+
+## append line to buffer
+append () {
+  appendf '%s' "${@}"
+  buf+=$'\n'
+}
+
+## append formatted string to buffer
+appendf () {
+  local fmt="$1"
+  shift
+  buf+="`printf "${fmt}" "${@}"`"
+}
+
+## wraps each argument in quotes
+wrap () {
+  printf '"%s" ' "${@}";
+  echo "";
+}
+
+intro () {
+  echo
+  echo "This will walk you through initialzing the bpkg \`package.json' file."
+  echo "It will prompt you for the bare minimum that is needed and provide"
+  echo "defaults."
+  echo
+  echo "See github.com/bpkg/bpkg for more information on defining the bpkg"
+  echo "\`package.json' file."
+  echo
+  echo "You can press ^C anytime to quit this prompt. The \`package.json' file"
+  echo "will only be written upon completion."
+  echo
+}
+
+options () {
+  opt NAME "$(basename `pwd`)"
+  opt VERSION "0.0.1"
+  opt DESCRIPTION ""
+  opt GLOBAL ""
+  opt INSTALL ""
+  opt SCRIPTS "${NAME}.sh"
+}
+
+prompts () {
+  prompt NAME "name: (${NAME}) "
+  prompt VERSION "version: (${VERSION}) "
+  prompt DESCRIPTION "description: "
+  prompt GLOBAL "global: "
+  prompt INSTALL "install: "
+  prompt SCRIPTS "scripts: (${SCRIPTS}) "
+}
+
+## handle required fields
+required () {
+  for key in  \
+    "NAME"    \
+    "SCRIPTS"
+  do
+    eval local val="\${${key}}"
+    [ -z "${val}" ] && error "Missing \`${key}' property"
+  done
+}
+
+## convert scripts to quoted csv
+csv () {
+  if [ ! -z "${SCRIPTS}" ]; then
+    {
+      local TMP=""
+      SCRIPTS="${SCRIPTS//,/ }"
+      SCRIPTS="${SCRIPTS//\"/}"
+      SCRIPTS="${SCRIPTS//\'/}"
+      SCRIPTS=($(wrap ${SCRIPTS}))
+      let len=${#SCRIPTS[@]}
+      for (( i = 0; i < len; i++ )); do
+        word=${SCRIPTS[$i]}
+        if (( i + 1 != len )); then
+          TMP+="${word}, "
+        else
+          TMP+="${word}"
+        fi
+      done
+      SCRIPTS="${TMP}"
+    }
+  fi
+}
+
+## delimit object and key-value pairs
+delimit () {
+  append "{"
+
+  for key in      \
+    "NAME"        \
+    "VERSION"     \
+    "DESCRIPTION" \
+    "GLOBAL"      \
+    "INSTALL"     \
+    "SCRIPTS"
+  do
+    local lowercase="$(echo ${key} | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
+
+    eval local val="\${${key}}"
+    if [ ! -z "${val}" ]; then
+
+      ## swap leading/trailing quotes for brackets in arrays
+      local before="\""
+      local after="\""
+      [ "$key" == "SCRIPTS" ] && before="[ " && after=" ]"
+
+      appendf "  \"${lowercase}\": ${before}%s${after}" "${val}"
+      append ","
+    fi
+  done
+
+  ## remove final trailing newline and comma
+  buf="${buf%?}"
+  buf="${buf%?}"
+
+  append ""
+  append "}"
+}
+
+## validate completed contents with user
+validate () {
+  prompt ANSWER "${buf}(yes) ? "
+  if [ "n" = "${ANSWER:0:1}" ]; then
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+## if package file already exists, ensure user wants to clobber
+clobber () {
+  if test -f "${file}"; then
+    prompt ANSWER "A \`package.json' already exists. Would you like to replace it? (yes): "
+    if [ "n" = "${ANSWER:0:1}" ]; then
+      exit 1
+    else
+      rm -f "${file}"
+    fi
+  fi
+}
+
+## main
+bpkg_init () {
+  local version="0.0.1"
+  local cwd="`pwd`"
+  local buf="" ## output buffer
+  local file="${cwd}/package.json" ## output file
+  local arg="$1"
+  shift
+
+  case "${arg}" in
+
+    ## flags
+    -V|--version)
+      echo "${version}"
+      exit 0
+      ;;
+
+    -h|--help)
+      usage
+      exit 0
+      ;;
+
+    *)
+      if [ ! -z "${arg}" ]; then
+        error "Unknown option: \`${arg}'"
+        usage
+        exit 1
+      fi
+      ;;
+  esac
+
+  ## set up package file
+  intro
+  options
+  prompts
+  required
+  csv
+  delimit
+  validate
+  clobber
+
+  ## create and write package file
+  touch "${file}"
+  echo "${buf}" > "${file}"
+  return 0
+}
+
+## export or run
+if [[ ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} != $0 ]]; then
+  export -f bpkg-init
+else
+  bpkg_init "${@}"
+  exit $?
+fi
+
diff --git a/lib/init/package.json b/lib/init/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a7d1ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/init/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "bpkg-init",
+  "version": "0.0.1",
+  "description": "Initialize a bpkg package.json",
+  "global": "true",
+  "install": "make install",
+  "scripts": [ "bpkg-init.sh" ]
+}
+