Implementation:Promptfoo Promptfoo createDummyFiles

Knowledge Sources	Promptfoo Getting Started
Domains	Developer_Experience, Scaffolding
Last Updated	2026-02-14 08:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for generating evaluation project files through interactive prompts, provided by the Promptfoo framework.

Description

The createDummyFiles function is the core implementation of the `promptfoo init` flow. It runs interactive prompts using @inquirer/select for use case, language, and provider selection, then generates project files (config, prompts, context) using Nunjucks templates and fs.writeFileSync.

Usage

Import this function when you need to programmatically scaffold a Promptfoo project. It is wrapped by initializeProject which adds telemetry and user-friendly output.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: promptfoo
• File: src/onboarding.ts
• Lines: L313-647

Signature

export async function createDummyFiles(
  directory: string | null,
  interactive: boolean = true,
): Promise<{
  numPrompts: number;
  providerPrefixes: string[];
  action: string;
  language: string;
  outDirectory: string;
}>

Import

import { createDummyFiles } from './onboarding';

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
directory	string or null	Yes	Target directory for generated files (null = current directory)
interactive	boolean	No	Whether to prompt user interactively (default: true)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
numPrompts	number	Number of prompt files generated
providerPrefixes	string[]	Selected provider identifiers
action	string	Selected use case (compare, rag, agent, redteam)
language	string	Selected programming language
outDirectory	string	The directory where files were written

Usage Examples

Interactive Initialization

import { createDummyFiles } from './onboarding';

// Interactive mode: prompts user for selections
const result = await createDummyFiles('./my-eval-project');
console.log(`Created ${result.numPrompts} prompt files`);
console.log(`Action: ${result.action}`);
console.log(`Providers: ${result.providerPrefixes.join(', ')}`);

Non-Interactive (Testing)

const result = await createDummyFiles('./test-project', false);
// Uses default selections without prompting

Related Pages

Implements Principle

• Principle:Promptfoo_Promptfoo_Interactive_Project_Setup

Requires Environment

• Environment:Promptfoo_Promptfoo_Node_Runtime