Project Initialization

🏗️ Initialize Book Project Structure

⚠️ Deprecated: The shell script create_project_structure.sh is now deprecated. ✅ Please use the new Python-based initializer instead: init_book_project.py

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✅ Why Switch to the Python Script?

The new init_book_project.py script offers:

• Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• More readable and maintainable code
• Poetry integration for smooth CLI usage
• Auto-creation of metadata files and a JSON template for image generation

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🚀 How to Use the New Initializer

First, make sure dependencies are installed:

poetry install

or if pyproject.toml changed significantly since poetry.lock was last generated. Run the following command to fix the lock file.

poetry lock

and then run again:

poetry install

Then you can run the initializer:

poetry run init-book-project

This will:

• Prompt you for project name, book title, author name, and description
• Create the full book folder structure (manuscript, config, assets, output, etc.)
• Generate default content files (README, LICENSE, chapter stubs, metadata files)
• Initialize a ready-to-use JSON image prompt configuration in scripts/data/

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🛠️ Auto-Configuration After Initialization

After running:

poetry run init-book-project

or the shortcut:

poetry run init-bp

you will be prompted to enter:

• 📘 Project name (used for folder and export base name)
• 📝 Project description (used in pyproject.toml)
• 📖 Book title (used in export metadata)
• 👤 Author name (used in export metadata)

These values will be automatically applied to key files:

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🔄 What Gets Updated Automatically

File	Field(s) Modified	Notes
pyproject.toml	tool.poetry.name, tool.poetry.description	Updates project name and description
scripts/full_export_book.py	OUTPUT_FILE, metadata template string	Changes the export base name and Pandoc metadata defaults
config/metadata.yaml	title, author, description, date, language	Pre-fills metadata for Pandoc export

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🧩 Example Prompt Flow

📘 Enter your project name (e.g., 'ai-for-everyone'): my-book
📝 Enter a short description of your project: A journey into friendly AI.
📖 Enter your book title: AI for Everyone
👤 Enter the author's name: Asterios Raptis

This will result in:

• pyproject.toml:

  name = "my-book"
  description = "A journey into friendly AI."

• full_export_book.py:

  OUTPUT_FILE = "my-book"
  ...
  f.write("title: 'AI for Everyone'\nauthor: 'Asterios Raptis'\ndate: '2025'\nlang: 'en'\n")

• config/metadata.yaml:

  title: "AI for Everyone"
  author: "Asterios Raptis"
  description: "A journey into friendly AI."
  date: "2025"
  language: "en"
  ...

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💡 Pro Tip

You no longer need to manually edit pyproject.toml or full_export_book.py after project setup. If you want to reapply or change these values later, just re-run the initializer.

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⚙️ What’s Created?

Directories:

• manuscript/chapters
• manuscript/front-matter
• manuscript/back-matter
• assets/covers
• assets/author
• assets/figures/diagrams
• assets/figures/infographics
• config
• output
• scripts/data

Files:

• Chapter placeholders (01-chapter.md, 02-chapter.md)
• Front and back matter files (toc.md, preface.md, glossary.md, etc.)
• Config files: metadata.yaml, metadata_values.json, styles.css, keywords.md, etc.
• Image generation config: scripts/data/image_project_config.json
• README and LICENSE templates

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🗂️ Example Directory Structure

book-project/
├── manuscript/
│   ├── chapters/01-chapter.md
│   ├── front-matter/preface.md
│   └── back-matter/epilogue.md
├── assets/
│   ├── covers/
│   ├── figures/diagrams/
├── config/
│   ├── metadata.yaml
│   └── metadata_values.json
├── output/
├── scripts/
│   └── data/image_project_config.json
├── README.md
├── LICENSE

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🧹 Remove Old Scripts

If you previously used this deprecated script:

scripts/create_project_structure.sh

you should now remove it from your workflow and use:

poetry run init-book-project

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🧱 Easily Extendable

The Python version can easily be extended to:

• Generate additional chapters
• Accept command-line arguments (e.g. for CI/CD or automation)
• Apply different templates (e.g., children's books, whitepapers, technical manuals)

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