kitchen init

Adds Test Kitchen support to an existing project. It writes a starter kitchen.yml in the project root and, optionally, adds the driver gems to a Gemfile.

kitchen init [FLAGS]

Examples

kitchen init                                    # defaults: kitchen-vagrant, shell provisioner
kitchen init -D kitchen-dokken                  # use the Dokken driver instead
kitchen init -D kitchen-dokken -P chef_infra    # Dokken driver, Chef Infra provisioner
kitchen init -D kitchen-ec2 kitchen-vagrant     # add more than one driver gem
kitchen init --create-gemfile                   # create a Gemfile if none exists

Flags

Flag	Alias	Default	Description
`--driver GEM [GEM...]`	`-D`	`kitchen-vagrant`	One or more driver gems to install or add to the Gemfile.
`--provisioner NAME`	`-P`	`shell`	The default provisioner to write into `kitchen.yml`.
`--create-gemfile`		`false`	Create a `Gemfile` if the project does not have one.

--driver takes a list, so several drivers can be added at once. --provisioner takes a single name.

What it creates

kitchen init writes a kitchen.yml in the project root, intended as a starting point rather than a finished configuration:

---
driver:
  name: vagrant

provisioner:
  name: shell

platforms:
  - name: ubuntu-24.04
  - name: almalinux-10

suites:
  - name: default
    run_list:
    attributes:

The driver name is derived from the gem name with the kitchen- prefix removed, so -D kitchen-dokken produces name: dokken.

If the project has a metadata.rb, the cookbook name is read from it and the default suite’s run list is pre-populated with recipe[<cookbook>::default].

Alongside kitchen.yml, init also:

Action	Condition
Creates `test/integration/default/`	No test directory exists yet.
Creates `chefignore`	Always.
Adds driver gems to `Gemfile`	A `Gemfile` exists, or `--create-gemfile` was passed.
Appends `.kitchen/` entries to `.gitignore`	The project is a git repository.
Adds Kitchen Rake tasks to `Rakefile`	A `Rakefile` exists and does not already have them.
Adds Kitchen Thor tasks to `Thorfile`	A `Thorfile` exists and does not already have them.

--create-gemfile defaults to false, so kitchen init will not create a Gemfile in a project that does not already have one. Pass the flag if you want dependency management via Bundler.

Automatic initialization

kitchen test accepts --auto-init, which runs kitchen init when no configuration file is found:

kitchen test --auto-init

This is convenient for scripted setup, but for a real project it is better to run kitchen init deliberately and then edit the generated kitchen.yml to match your platforms and suites.

After init

The generated file rarely survives contact with a real project unchanged. The usual next steps are to pick the platforms you actually target, configure your driver, and write a first test. The Getting Started guide walks through this end to end.