diff --git a/packages/agoric-cli/lib/init.js b/packages/agoric-cli/lib/init.js
index 1d6807fc61a..1321d695bfe 100644
--- a/packages/agoric-cli/lib/init.js
+++ b/packages/agoric-cli/lib/init.js
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ export default async function initMain(progname, rawArgs, priv, opts) {
     );
   };
   await recursiveTemplate(dappRoot);
-  await mkdir(`${DIR}/_agstate`, { recursive: true });
+  await mkdir(`${DIR}/_agstate/agoric-servers`, { recursive: true });
 
   const ps = ['', 'api/', 'contract/', 'ui/'].map(dir => {
     const path = `${DIR}/${dir}package.json`;
diff --git a/packages/agoric-cli/lib/start.js b/packages/agoric-cli/lib/start.js
index 2d36a6e3ff5..f2772cb731b 100644
--- a/packages/agoric-cli/lib/start.js
+++ b/packages/agoric-cli/lib/start.js
@@ -87,6 +87,11 @@ export default async function startMain(progname, rawArgs, priv, opts) {
     );
     await linkHtml(profileName);
 
+    if (!popts['restart']) {
+      // Don't actually run the chain.
+      return 0;
+    }
+
     return pspawn(agSolo, ['start', '--role=two_client'], {
       stdio: 'inherit',
       cwd: agServer,
@@ -198,7 +203,8 @@ export default async function startMain(progname, rawArgs, priv, opts) {
   };
 
   const { _: args, ...popts } = parseArgs(rawArgs, {
-    boolean: ['reset', 'pull'],
+    boolean: ['reset', 'restart', 'pull'],
+    default: { restart: true },
   });
 
   const profileName = args[0] || 'dev';