create-r-package

Create R Package

Scaffold a fully configured R package with modern tooling and best practices.

When to Use

• Starting a new R package from scratch
• Converting loose R scripts into a package
• Setting up a package skeleton for collaborative development

Inputs

• Required: Package name (lowercase, no special characters except .)
• Required: One-line description of the package purpose
• Optional: License type (default: MIT)
• Optional: Author information (name, email, ORCID)
• Optional: Whether to initialize renv (default: yes)

Procedure

Step 1: Create Package Skeleton

usethis::create_package("packagename")
setwd("packagename")

Got: Directory created with DESCRIPTION, NAMESPACE, R/, and man/ subdirectories.

If fail: Ensure usethis is installed (install.packages("usethis")). Check that the directory does not already exist.

Step 2: Configure DESCRIPTION

Edit DESCRIPTION with accurate metadata:

Package: packagename
Title: What the Package Does (Title Case)
Version: 0.1.0
Authors@R:
    person("First", "Last", , "[email protected]", role = c("aut", "cre"),
           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0000-0000-0000"))
Description: One paragraph describing what the package does. Must be more
    than one sentence. Avoid starting with "This package".
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
RoxygenNote: 7.3.2
URL: https://github.com/username/packagename
BugReports: https://github.com/username/packagename/issues

Got: Valid DESCRIPTION that passes R CMD check with no metadata warnings.

If fail: If R CMD check warns about DESCRIPTION fields, verify that Title is in Title Case, Description is more than one sentence, and Authors@R uses valid person() syntax.

Step 3: Set Up Infrastructure

usethis::use_mit_license()
usethis::use_readme_md()
usethis::use_news_md()
usethis::use_testthat(edition = 3)
usethis::use_git()
usethis::use_github_action("check-standard")