Create folder during init

[banrahan]

Related to #8209, example implementation for changing azd ai agent init to create a new dir when init'ing from a sample.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the azd ai agent init flow (azure.ai.agents extension) to mimic git clone behavior by creating a new subdirectory when initializing from a sample/template, reducing the risk of writing project files into an unexpected directory (e.g., a user’s home folder).

Changes:

• Add a targetDir parameter to the shared manifest init path so project scaffolding can occur in a chosen directory.
• When initializing from a template, derive a folder name from the template title, run azd init into that folder, and chdir the extension process to keep subsequent file operations aligned.
• Print a follow-up message indicating where the project was created.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/cmd/init.go:716

• This env name construction appends "-dev" after sanitization, which can produce names longer than azd's 64-char environment name limit (cli/azd/pkg/environment/environment.go:150-152) when envBase is long. To avoid azd init failing, sanitize/truncate the complete "-dev" value (or leverage azd's environment name cleaning) so the final length is guaranteed valid.

			sanitizedDirectoryName := sanitizeAgentName(envBase)
			initArgs = append(
				initArgs, "--environment", sanitizedDirectoryName+"-dev",
			)

[jongio]

Issues to address:

• init.go:494 - folder name derivation is duplicated between the TemplateTypeAzd and default cases; extract a helper

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

[wbreza]

Thanks for tackling this — moving azd ai agent init to a git clone-style folder layout is the right UX. A few observations beyond the prior reviewer comments:

High

1. folderNameFromTitle is only used in one of the two template branches

The new helper addresses jongio''s earlier "extract a helper" feedback, but the TemplateTypeAzd branch still calls sanitizeAgentName(selectedTemplate.Title) directly while the default (manifest) branch calls folderNameFromTitle(selectedTemplate.Title). For a template titled "Basic Agent (Python)" the two branches now produce different folders:

• Azd branch → basic-agent-python/
• Manifest branch → basic-agent/

Suggest routing both branches through folderNameFromTitle so the naming is consistent across template types.

2. Env-name derivation is inconsistent between branches

• Azd branch: sanitizeAgentName(selectedTemplate.Title + "-dev") — derived from the raw title
• Manifest branch (via ensureProject): sanitizeAgentName(targetDir + "-dev") — derived from the sanitized folder name

Same template, different env name depending on type. Easiest fix: have both paths derive the env name from the resolved folder name (the manifest branch''s pattern), so folder + env stay paired.

3. Non-ASCII titles are silently destroyed

sanitizeAgentName''s regex [^a-z0-9-]+ strips all non-ASCII to hyphens, then trims/truncates and falls back to "my-agent" if empty. A template titled Échantillon becomes chantillon, and a title that is mostly non-ASCII (e.g. 日本語エージェント) collapses to my-agent with no warning. Worth at least surfacing a notice — perhaps including the original template title in the "Your project has been created in …" line — so users can see how their selection was mapped.

Medium

4. ./ prefix is POSIX-style on Windows

fmt.Printf("\nYour project has been created in ./%s\n", relPath)

On Windows this prints ./src\my-agent — neither idiomatic Unix nor Windows. Consider filepath.ToSlash(relPath) for display, and either drop the literal ./ or quote the path.

5. Message doesn''t tell the user the next step

The follow-up tells the user where the project was created but not how to navigate to it. Many CLIs print a literal cd <folder> line for copy-paste — would be helpful here.

6. Long titles can truncate -dev off the env name

sanitizeAgentName(title + "-dev") sanitizes the combined string and then truncates to 63 chars. For long titles, -dev is silently dropped. Truncating the base to 59 chars before appending -dev keeps the suffix intact:

base := sanitizeAgentName(title)
if len(base) > 59 { base = strings.TrimRight(base[:59], "-") }
envName := base + "-dev"

7. Inverted dirExisted semantics

_, dirExisted := os.Stat(folderName)
if dirExisted != nil { /* directory was NEW */ }

The variable is an error, not a boolean — dirExisted != nil actually means "stat failed (directory probably did not exist)." This reads backwards and the same pattern is mirrored in the tests. Two improvements:

1. Rename to statErr (or compute a newlyCreated bool) for clarity.
2. Use errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) instead of err != nil — otherwise a permission error on os.Stat would be treated as "newly created" and trigger the "created" message incorrectly.

8. Tests assert against re-implemented logic, not production code

The five new TestCreatedFolderPath_* tests locally re-execute the same filepath.Join(originalCwd, folderName) + filepath.Rel(...) computation and then assert the result equals itself. They don''t invoke newInitCommand, ensureProject, runInitFromManifest, sanitizeAgentName, or folderNameFromTitle. The tests will pass even if the production flow diverges.

Suggest extracting the path-derivation into a small pure helper, e.g.:

func formatCreatedFolderMessage(originalCwd, createdFolder string) string { ... }

…and having both the production code and the tests call it. That makes the tests meaningful regression markers.

9. sanitizeAgentName and folderNameFromTitle have no direct unit tests

These two helpers are central to folder + env-name correctness but are only exercised transitively. Worth a small table-driven test for each, covering at minimum:

• Truncation at 63 chars (and the -dev suffix loss in #6)
• Empty-after-sanitize fallback to "my-agent"
• Non-ASCII input (related to #3)
• Trailing-(...) stripping in folderNameFromTitle

Low

10. folderNameFromTitle is narrowly scoped under a generic name

It only strips a trailing (...) suffix. Either rename it more specifically (e.g. folderNameStrippingParenSuffix) or add a short doc comment so callers don''t expect broader normalization.

11. Help text and discoverability

The cobra command''s Short/Long text doesn''t mention the new "creates a new folder" behavior. Updating it would make the change discoverable from --help.

12. No opt-out flag for the prior behavior

Power users who deliberately want to scaffold into the current directory have no shortcut anymore. Not blocking — possible follow-up.

---

Overall the change is the right direction. The biggest things to address before merge are the two consistency issues (#1, #2) and the silent non-ASCII handling (#3); the rest can fold in here or in a follow-up.

[banrahan]

Thanks @wbreza for all of the helpful feedback, I addressed all but 11 and 12. For 11, there are a lot of init behaviors that will not create a folder, so I am not sure what to put in the help text that isn't super long. For 12, we can put that as another issue for later if needed.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.