diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-all-packages.yml b/.github/workflows/test-all-packages.yml
index ab79771ce14..01dcea919fe 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-all-packages.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-all-packages.yml
@@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ jobs:
         run: cd packages/cache && yarn ${{ steps.vars.outputs.test }} | $TEST_COLLECT
       - name: yarn test (casting)
         run: cd packages/casting && yarn ${{ steps.vars.outputs.test }} | $TEST_COLLECT
+      - name: yarn test (create-dapp)
+        run: cd packages/create-dapp && yarn ${{ steps.vars.outputs.test }} | $TEST_COLLECT
       - name: yarn test (internal)
         run: cd packages/internal && yarn ${{ steps.vars.outputs.test }} | $TEST_COLLECT
       - name: yarn test (pegasus)
diff --git a/packages/agoric-cli/src/main.js b/packages/agoric-cli/src/main.js
index e46823d51ea..348be6b869a 100644
--- a/packages/agoric-cli/src/main.js
+++ b/packages/agoric-cli/src/main.js
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ const main = async (progname, rawArgs, powers) => {
     .option(
       '--hostport <host:port>',
       'host and port to connect to VM',
-      '127.0.0.1:8000',
+      'localhost:8000',
     )
     .option('--no-browser', `just display the URL, don't open a browser`)
     .option(
diff --git a/packages/agoric-cli/src/sdk-package-names.js b/packages/agoric-cli/src/sdk-package-names.js
index 06a0f9c5ac4..d6b5d4b5b39 100644
--- a/packages/agoric-cli/src/sdk-package-names.js
+++ b/packages/agoric-cli/src/sdk-package-names.js
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ export default [
   "@agoric/cosmic-proto",
   "@agoric/cosmic-swingset",
   "@agoric/cosmos",
+  "@agoric/create-dapp",
   "@agoric/deploy-script-support",
   "@agoric/deployment",
   "@agoric/ertp",
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/.gitignore b/packages/create-dapp/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bf242669fa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+.vagrant
+/dapps
+
+# emacs and vim
+*~
+[._]*.sw[a-p]
+
+# Logs
+logs
+*.log
+npm-debug.log*
+yarn-debug.log*
+yarn-error.log*
+
+# Runtime data
+pids
+*.pid
+*.seed
+*.pid.lock
+
+# Directory for instrumented libs generated by jscoverage/JSCover
+lib-cov
+
+# Coverage directory used by tools like istanbul
+coverage
+
+# nyc test coverage
+.nyc_output
+
+# Grunt intermediate storage (http://gruntjs.com/creating-plugins#storing-task-files)
+.grunt
+
+# Bower dependency directory (https://bower.io/)
+bower_components
+
+# node-waf configuration
+.lock-wscript
+
+# Compiled binary addons (https://nodejs.org/api/addons.html)
+build/Release
+
+# Dependency directories
+node_modules
+jspm_packages/
+
+# TypeScript v1 declaration files
+typings/
+
+# Optional npm cache directory
+.npm
+
+# Optional eslint cache
+.eslintcache
+
+# Optional REPL history
+.node_repl_history
+
+# Output of 'npm pack'
+*.tgz
+
+# Yarn Integrity file
+.yarn-integrity
+
+# dotenv environment variables file
+.env
+
+# next.js build output
+.next
+
+.idea/
+
+# dist files
+/dist
+
+# generated integration-test files
+integration-test/.cache
+integration-test/bundles
+integration-test/transform-tests/output
+
+# generated Sphinx/ReadTheDocs files 
+/docs/build/
+/demo
+t[0-9]*
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/.npmignore b/packages/create-dapp/.npmignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6579415ef23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/.npmignore
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+.vagrant
+
+# Demo
+demo
+dapps
+
+# scripts
+scripts
+
+# test
+test
+
+# Travis CI
+.travis.yml
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/create-dapp/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e4d87c4d45c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Change Log
+
+All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
+See [Conventional Commits](https://conventionalcommits.org) for commit guidelines.
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/README.md b/packages/create-dapp/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..73e9f792c42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# Create Agoric Dapp
+
+To make a new Agoric Dapp in the `foo` subdirectory, you can use:
+
+```
+$ yarn create @agoric/dapp foo
+```
+
+or:
+
+```
+$ npm create @agoric/dapp foo
+```
+
+or:
+
+```
+$ pnpm create @agoric/dapp foo
+```
+
+Each of the above commands are shorthand for installing the `agoric` package, then running `agoric init foo`.
+
+Please see the [Getting Started website](https://agoric.com/documentation/getting-started/) for information.
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/jsconfig.json b/packages/create-dapp/jsconfig.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e9c3e53b5d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/jsconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+// This file can contain .js-specific Typescript compiler config.
+{
+  "extends": "../../tsconfig.json",
+  "include": [
+    "src/**/*.js",
+  ],
+}
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/package.json b/packages/create-dapp/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d9d5df11130
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+{
+  "name": "@agoric/create-dapp",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "description": "Create an Agoric Javascript smart contract application",
+  "type": "module",
+  "bin": {
+    "create-dapp": "src/create-dapp.js"
+  },
+  "files": [
+    "src"
+  ],
+  "scripts": {
+    "build": "exit 0",
+    "test": "ava",
+    "test:c8": "c8 $C8_OPTIONS ava --config=ava-nesm.config.js",
+    "test:xs": "exit 0",
+    "lint-fix": "yarn lint:eslint --fix",
+    "lint": "run-s --continue-on-error lint:*",
+    "lint:types": "tsc -p jsconfig.json",
+    "lint:eslint": "eslint ."
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "ava": "^5.2.0",
+    "c8": "^7.13.0",
+    "dd-trace": "^3.3.0"
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+    "agoric": "^0.21.2-u12.0"
+  },
+  "keywords": [],
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "git+https://github.com/Agoric/agoric-sdk"
+  },
+  "author": "Agoric",
+  "license": "Apache-2.0",
+  "bugs": {
+    "url": "https://github.com/Agoric/agoric/agoric-sdk"
+  },
+  "homepage": "https://github.com/Agoric/agoric-sdk#readme",
+  "ava": {
+    "files": [
+      "test/**/test-*.js"
+    ],
+    "timeout": "2m",
+    "workerThreads": false
+  },
+  "publishConfig": {
+    "access": "public"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/src/create-dapp.js b/packages/create-dapp/src/create-dapp.js
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..4bbb451243d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/src/create-dapp.js
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env node
+/* global process */
+import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
+import { createRequire } from 'module';
+
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+
+const agoricCli = require.resolve('.bin/agoric');
+
+const proc = spawnSync(agoricCli, ['init', ...process.argv.slice(2)], {
+  stdio: 'inherit',
+});
+
+if (proc.status === null) {
+  throw proc.error;
+}
+process.exit(proc.status);
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js b/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f4424d58768
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import test from 'ava';
+import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
+
+const binname = fileURLToPath(
+  new URL('../src/create-dapp.js', import.meta.url),
+);
+
+test('sanity', async t => {
+  await null;
+  const myMain = args => {
+    return spawnSync(binname, args, { stdio: 'ignore' }).status;
+  };
+
+  t.is(await myMain(['--help']), 0, '--help exits zero');
+  t.is(await myMain(['--version']), 0, '--version exits zero');
+  t.is(await myMain(['--zorgar']), 1, 'unknown flag fails');
+});
diff --git a/packages/xsnap/package.json b/packages/xsnap/package.json
index fd087b3e103..a7ef324985e 100644
--- a/packages/xsnap/package.json
+++ b/packages/xsnap/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "@agoric/xsnap",
   "version": "0.14.3-u12.0",
-  "description": "Description forthcoming.",
+  "description": "Snapshotting VM worker based on Moddable's XS Javascript engine",
   "author": "Agoric",
   "license": "Apache-2.0",
   "type": "module",
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
   },
   "scripts": {
     "repl": "node src/xsrepl.js",
-    "build:bin": "if git status >/dev/null 2>&1; then node src/build.js; else yarn build:from-env; fi",
-    "build:env": "if git status >/dev/null 2>&1; then node src/build.js --show-env > build.env; fi",
+    "build:bin": "if test -d ./test; then node src/build.js; else yarn build:from-env; fi",
+    "build:env": "test -d ./test && node src/build.js --show-env > build.env",
     "build:from-env": "{ cat build.env; echo node src/build.js; } | xargs env",
     "build": "yarn build:bin && yarn build:env",
     "postinstall": "yarn build:from-env",