diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord.pm b/lib/App/Changelord.pm
index 2b21767..f845df6 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord.pm
@@ -19,13 +19,11 @@ option source => (
     default => 'CHANGELOG.yml',
 );
 
-has changelog => (
-    lazy => 1,
-    is => 'ro',
-    default => sub($self) {
-        return YAML::LoadFile($self->source)
-    }
-);
+has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
+
+sub _build_changelog($self) {
+    return YAML::LoadFile($self->source)
+}
 
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
 
@@ -142,9 +140,7 @@ sub run($self) {
     print $self->as_markdown;
 }
 
-subcommand 'schema' => 'App::Changelord::Command::Schema';
-subcommand 'validate' => 'App::Changelord::Command::Validate';
-subcommand 'version' => 'App::Changelord::Command::Version';
-subcommand 'bump' => 'App::Changelord::Command::Bump';
+subcommand $_ => 'App::Changelord::Command::' . ucfirst $_
+    for qw/ schema validate version bump init/;
 
-'end of App::Changeman';
+1;
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..148fdcc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+package App::Changelord::Command::Init;
+
+use 5.36.0;
+
+use Moo;
+use CLI::Osprey desc => 'initialize new changelog source file';
+
+use Path::Tiny;
+use JSON;
+use YAML           qw/ Bless /;
+use List::AllUtils qw/ first min uniq /;
+use Version::Dotted::Semantic;
+
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
+
+has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
+
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Versions';
+
+sub _build_changelog ($self) { $self->parent_command->changelog }
+
+sub serialize_changelog($self, $changelog = undef) {
+
+    $changelog //= $self->changelog;
+
+    Bless($changelog)->keys(
+        [   uniq qw/
+              project releases change_types
+              /, sort keys %$changelog
+        ] );
+    Bless( $changelog->{project} )->keys(
+        [   uniq qw/
+              name homepage
+              /, sort keys $changelog->{project}->%*
+        ] );
+
+    for ( grep { ref } $changelog->{releases}->@* ) {
+        Bless($_)->keys( [ uniq qw/ version date changes /, sort keys %$_ ] );
+    }
+
+    return YAML::Dump($changelog);
+}
+
+sub run ($self) {
+    my $src = $self->parent_command->source;
+    die "file '$src' already exists, aborting\n" if -f $src;
+
+    my $change = {
+        project => {
+            name => undef,
+            homepage => undef,
+        },
+        change_types => $self->change_types,
+        releases => [
+            { version => 'NEXT', changes => [] }
+        ]
+    };
+    path($src)->spew( $self->serialize_changelog($change) );
+
+    say "file '$src' created, enjoy!";
+}
+
+'end of App::Changelog::Command::Init';
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/ChangeTypes.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/ChangeTypes.pm
index 68bbae9..e661894 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/ChangeTypes.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/ChangeTypes.pm
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ sub _build_change_types($self) {
     } || [
             { title => 'Features'  , level => 'minor', keywords => [ 'feat' ] } ,
             { title => 'Bug fixes' , level => 'patch', keywords => [ 'fix' ]  },
+            { title => 'Package maintenance' , level => 'patch', keywords => [ 'chore', 'maint', 'refactor' ]  },
         ]
 }