diff --git a/app/cli/cmd/attestation_init.go b/app/cli/cmd/attestation_init.go
index e70584e80..bd3d75812 100644
--- a/app/cli/cmd/attestation_init.go
+++ b/app/cli/cmd/attestation_init.go
@@ -57,19 +57,23 @@ func newAttestationInitCmd() *cobra.Command {
 				return errors.New("workflow name is required, set it via --workflow flag")
 			}
 
-			// load version from the file if not set and not using --latest-version
-			if projectVersion == "" && !useLatestVersion {
-				// load the cfg from the file
+			// Load project name and version from .chainloop.yaml when the
+			// corresponding CLI flags are not provided.
+			// Precedence: CLI flag > .chainloop.yaml > default/auto-discovery.
+			if projectName == "" || (projectVersion == "" && !useLatestVersion) {
 				cfg, path, err := loadDotChainloopConfigWithParentTraversal()
-				// we do gracefully load, if not found, or any other error we continue
 				if err != nil {
 					logger.Debug().Msgf("failed to load chainloop config: %s", err)
-					return nil
+				} else {
+					if projectName == "" && cfg.Project != "" {
+						logger.Debug().Msgf("loaded project %q from config file %s", cfg.Project, path)
+						projectName = cfg.Project
+					}
+					if projectVersion == "" && !useLatestVersion && cfg.ProjectVersion != "" {
+						logger.Debug().Msgf("loaded version %q from config file %s", cfg.ProjectVersion, path)
+						projectVersion = cfg.ProjectVersion
+					}
 				}
-
-				logger.Debug().Msgf("loaded version %s from config file %s", cfg.ProjectVersion, path)
-
-				projectVersion = cfg.ProjectVersion
 			}
 
 			if useLatestVersion && projectVersion != "" {
@@ -172,7 +176,7 @@ func newAttestationInitCmd() *cobra.Command {
 			}
 
 			if projectName == "" {
-				logger.Warn().Msg("DEPRECATION WARNING: --project not set, this will be required in the near future")
+				logger.Warn().Msg("DEPRECATION WARNING: project not set via --project flag or .chainloop.yaml, this will be required in the near future")
 			}
 
 			return output.EncodeOutput(flagOutputFormat, res, fullStatusTable)
@@ -191,8 +195,7 @@ func newAttestationInitCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&workflowName, "workflow-name", "", "name of the workflow to run the attestation")
 	cobra.CheckErr(cmd.Flags().MarkDeprecated("workflow-name", "please use --workflow instead"))
 
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&projectName, "project", "", "name of the project of this workflow")
-	cobra.CheckErr(cmd.MarkFlagRequired("project"))
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&projectName, "project", "", "name of the project of this workflow (can also be set in .chainloop.yaml)")
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&newWorkflowcontract, "contract", "", "name of an existing contract or the path/URL to a contract file, to attach it to the auto-created workflow (it doesn't update an existing one)")
 
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&projectVersion, "version", "", "project version, i.e 0.1.0")
diff --git a/app/cli/cmd/attestation_test.go b/app/cli/cmd/attestation_test.go
index 686df0dff..3f7b7aaa5 100644
--- a/app/cli/cmd/attestation_test.go
+++ b/app/cli/cmd/attestation_test.go
@@ -77,6 +77,31 @@ func TestOrgFromLocalState(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 }
 
+func TestAttestationInitProjectFromDotChainloop(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Chdir(t.TempDir())
+	require.NoError(t, os.WriteFile(".chainloop.yaml", []byte("project: config-project\n"), 0o600))
+
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		name       string
+		cliProject string
+		want       string
+	}{
+		{name: "from config", want: "config-project"},
+		{name: "CLI takes precedence", cliProject: "cli-project", want: "cli-project"},
+	} {
+		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			cmd := newAttestationInitCmd()
+			require.NoError(t, cmd.Flags().Set("workflow", "test-workflow"))
+			if tc.cliProject != "" {
+				require.NoError(t, cmd.Flags().Set("project", tc.cliProject))
+			}
+
+			require.NoError(t, cmd.PreRunE(cmd, nil))
+			assert.Equal(t, tc.want, cmd.Flags().Lookup("project").Value.String())
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestExtractAnnotations(t *testing.T) {
 	testCases := []struct {
 		input   []string
diff --git a/app/cli/cmd/config.go b/app/cli/cmd/config.go
index 8feaae581..12ec10c0a 100644
--- a/app/cli/cmd/config.go
+++ b/app/cli/cmd/config.go
@@ -165,4 +165,5 @@ func isDir(filename string) bool {
 
 type DotChainloopConfig struct {
 	ProjectVersion string `yaml:"projectVersion"`
+	Project        string `yaml:"project"`
 }
diff --git a/app/cli/documentation/cli-reference.mdx b/app/cli/documentation/cli-reference.mdx
index 63e58e572..e069d76a1 100755
--- a/app/cli/documentation/cli-reference.mdx
+++ b/app/cli/documentation/cli-reference.mdx
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ Options
 --latest-version          use the latest existing project version instead of specifying one
 --mark-latest             explicitly mark the project version as latest (default: automatic for new versions; use =false to skip promotion) (default true)
 --pr                      mark this attestation as a pull/merge request build (skips latest promotion and sets the chainloop.dev/is-pull-request annotation; auto-detected from CI env if not set)
---project string          name of the project of this workflow
+--project string          name of the project of this workflow (can also be set in .chainloop.yaml)
 --release                 promote the provided version as a release
 --remote-state            Store the attestation state remotely
 -f, --replace                 replace any existing in-progress attestation