new

Create a new deck, collection, or wanted list file.

Usage

./ritual new <type> <name...> [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description	Required
<type>	List type: deck, collection, wanted	Yes
<name...>	Name of the list	Yes

Options

Option	Description	Default
-f, --format <format>	Deck format (decks only) — see Formats below; --help points here, and passing an invalid value lists every accepted format	commander
--output <format>	Output format: text, json, or ndjson	text
--quiet	Suppress non-essential output	false

Passing --format for a collection or wanted list is a usage error. Omitting --format on a deck creates a Commander deck.

Formats

--format accepts any of the formats below. The value is normalized before it is written, so EDH, Commander / EDH, and commander all store format: commander. An unrecognized format is an error — the deck file is not created.

commander, oathbreaker, standard, modern, pioneer, legacy, vintage, pauper, historic, alchemy, explorer, timeless, penny-dreadful, brawl, historic-brawl, duel-commander, pauper-commander, pre-dh, pre-modern, limited

Examples

Create a new Commander deck:

./ritual new deck "Atraxa Superfriends"

Create a Standard deck:

./ritual new deck "Mono Red Aggro" --format standard

Create a collection and a wanted list:

./ritual new collection "Trade Binder"
./ritual new wanted "Grail Cards"

Capture the created list as JSON:

./ritual new deck "Burn" --output json

The JSON payload is { type, slug, name, filePath }.

Output

Creates a new Markdown file in the type’s directory (decks/, collections/, or wanted/), named as the list is named, plus its .sha256 content-hash sidecar. Decks start with front matter and an empty ## Main section; collections and wanted lists start as a bare # Name heading.

List file names

A list’s file is named exactly as you name the list — ritual new deck "Winota Stax" writes decks/Winota Stax.md. Case, spaces, and punctuation are preserved; the name is not lowercased or hyphenated.

Only the characters that file systems reject are removed: / \ : * ? " < > |, the null byte, and leading, trailing, or repeated dots (which would otherwise hide the file or escape the directory). So Atraxa: Praetors' Voice is stored as decks/Atraxa Praetors' Voice.md, while the name: front matter keeps the colon. A name left with nothing usable ("???") is an error, and no file is written.

Because a name is also how you address a list later, new refuses a name that would resolve to a list of the same type that already exists — not just one that lands on the same file name. Creating atraxa superfriends beside an existing Atraxa Superfriends.md is refused with A deck named 'Atraxa Superfriends' already exists (it matches 'atraxa superfriends' under list-name folding), rather than creating a second deck neither name could reach.

Decks, collections, and wanted lists are all named this way, by every surface that creates one — the CLI, the editors, imports, and the admin site.

Deck format

A deck’s format lives in its format: front matter, and is the same closed set of values everywhere it is used — ritual new, the editors, import, the admin site, and the MCP create_list tool.

A deck that declares no format is treated as Commander when it has a ## Commander section (Oathbreaker for a ## Oathbreaker or ## Signature Spell section). That inference is written into the file the next time the deck is saved, so an imported or hand-written deck stops being a guess after its first edit.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (unknown type, unknown format, --format on a non-deck, unusable name, a name that already resolves to an existing list)
1	Runtime error