Workspace detection

gen and init both start by detecting the shape of your project. There is no configuration for this step — it is derived from well-known files at the root path.

The decision tree

deno.json / deno.jsonc found?
├── yes → language: ts, registry: jsr
│         members = deno.json workspace entries
├── Cargo.toml found?
│   ├── yes → error (deno + cargo mixed workspaces are not supported)
│   └── no  → continue
pnpm-workspace.yaml or package.json found?
├── yes → language: ts, registry: npm
│         members = pnpm workspace packages
Cargo.toml found?
├── yes → language: rs, registry: crates.io
│         members = cargo workspace members
└── no  → error: "Could not detect language"

Deno wins over pnpm when both exist; a repository with both a deno.json and a Cargo.toml is rejected because the two registries cannot be combined yet (see the roadmap).

Deno workspaces (registry: jsr)

Members come from the workspace array of deno.json / deno.jsonc:

// deno.json
{
  "workspace": ["./packages/core", "./packages/cli", "./packages/*"]
}

• Glob entries (packages/*) are expanded by looking for deno.json / deno.jsonc in each candidate folder.
• The package name is the member's deno.json name; when missing it falls back to @<repoScope>/<folderName>.
• The description is the member's deno.json description; when missing, Readma fetches it from the JSR registry metadata and falls back to - (also when --offline).

pnpm / npm workspaces (registry: npm)

Members come from pnpm-workspace.yaml (parsed with @pnpm/workspace.read-manifest) or a root package.json with workspaces:

# pnpm-workspace.yaml
packages:
  - "packages/**"

• Glob patterns are expanded by looking for a package.json in each candidate folder (node_modules is excluded).
• Name and description come from each member's package.json, with the folder name as fallback.

note

Current limitations: glob expansion runs at a max depth of 3 and negated (!) patterns are not handled — see limitations.

Cargo workspaces (registry: crates.io)

Members come from workspace.members in Cargo.toml:

[workspace]
members = ["crates/core", "crates/cli"]

Name and description come from each member's [package] section.

What detection feeds

Detected value	Used by
language	Installation snippets, msrv badge applicability
packageRegistry	Version badge, automatic installation snippet
members	Root readme members table, per-member readme targets, root.members
descriptions	The Description column of the members table

Member readmes in practice

For each member, gen deep-merges the root config with member-specific values (workspaceMember, packageRegistry, installation, MDX section overrides), so members inherit everything you configured globally:

my-repo/
├── deno.json            # workspace: ["./packages/*"]
├── readma.config.ts     # one config for the whole workspace
├── README.md            # generated: members table, root install
└── packages/
    ├── core/
    │   ├── deno.json    # name + description picked up here
    │   └── README.md    # generated: member install, JSR badge
    └── cli/
        ├── deno.json
        └── README.md