diff --git a/src/specify_cli/__init__.py b/src/specify_cli/__init__.py
index 36b7418cc..6ce0fdb8a 100644
--- a/src/specify_cli/__init__.py
+++ b/src/specify_cli/__init__.py
@@ -796,7 +796,7 @@ def init(
     # Handle '.' as shorthand for current directory (equivalent to --here)
     if project_name == ".":
         here = True
-        project_name = None  # Clear it so validation logic works correctly
+        project_name = None  # This transformation allows the existing validation logic to work unchanged, since it was designed to handle the case where here=True and project_name=None.
     
     # Validate arguments
     if here and project_name: