I'll let others determine whether this is in of scope, but I think it would be a good idea to build in a project-creating command that sets up a basic directory/file structure.

This would be kinda like cabal init, but wider in scope -- more like lein new.

Here are some of the features I imagine it should have, perhaps to be split into separate tickets:

• stack new myproj would create a myproj directory with src, README, LICENSE, stack.yaml
• create a Main.hs (if the user specifies a command-line argument?)
• create sample unit test file
• create a directory layout within src based on module names provided by the user (as a command-line argument?)
• support plugins for different code templates.
• support specifying the template-plugin on the stack new command line without installing that plugin ahead of time, e.g. stack new myproj --template=yesod-scaffold-stack[==x.x.x] would automatically install the yesod-scaffold-stack plugin and use it to generate the new project.

(see plugin discussion at #136)

It would be nice to also have commands for manipulating a project after it's been created. New users coming to the tooling may want to just play around, and having to decide up-front what "kind" of project they should make (library and/or executable? what should the targets be?) can be a bit paralyzing -- if they make one choice, and write some code, how will they change it later? The project-creation command should make this very clear and as easy as possible to change afterward.

Khan Thompson created http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hein recently, which is basically exactly what I'm suggesting here. On the reddit discussion at http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/37wsxc/hein_an_alpha_build_tool_modelled_after_lein/crqilmw he indicated he'd be happy to deprecate his in favor of this one (implicitly, anyway).