diff --git a/spec/app/config-spec.coffee b/spec/app/config-spec.coffee
index 661ef3c78..351aa4785 100644
--- a/spec/app/config-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/app/config-spec.coffee
@@ -109,3 +109,20 @@ describe "Config", ->
 
       config.set("foo.bar.baz", "i'm back")
       expect(observeHandler).toHaveBeenCalledWith("i'm back")
+
+  describe "initializeConfigDirectory()", ->
+    beforeEach ->
+      config.configDirPath = '/tmp/dot-atom-dir'
+
+    afterEach ->
+      fs.remove('/tmp/dot-atom-dir') if fs.exists('/tmp/dot-atom-dir')
+
+    describe "when the configDirPath doesn't exist", ->
+      it "copies the contents of dot-atom to ~/.atom if it doesn't exist", ->
+        expect(fs.exists(config.configDirPath)).toBeFalsy()
+        config.initializeConfigDirectory()
+        expect(fs.exists(config.configDirPath)).toBeTruthy()
+        expect(fs.exists(fs.join(config.configDirPath, 'packages'))).toBeTruthy()
+        expect(fs.exists(fs.join(config.configDirPath, 'snippets'))).toBeTruthy()
+        expect(fs.exists(fs.join(config.configDirPath, 'themes'))).toBeTruthy()
+        expect(fs.isFile(fs.join(config.configDirPath, 'config.cson'))).toBeTruthy()
diff --git a/src/app/config.coffee b/src/app/config.coffee
index 509b9fec8..cdb9b3182 100644
--- a/src/app/config.coffee
+++ b/src/app/config.coffee
@@ -30,7 +30,20 @@ class Config
     @configFilePath = fs.resolve(configDirPath, 'config', ['json', 'cson'])
     @configFilePath ?= fs.join(configDirPath, 'config.cson')
 
+  initializeConfigDirectory: ->
+    return if fs.exists(@configDirPath)
+
+    fs.makeDirectory(@configDirPath)
+    templateConfigDirPath = fs.resolve(window.resourcePath, 'dot-atom')
+    onConfigDirFile = (path) =>
+      templatePath = fs.join(templateConfigDirPath, path)
+      configPath = fs.join(@configDirPath, path)
+      fs.write(configPath, fs.read(templatePath))
+    onConfigDirPath = (path) -> true
+    fs.traverseTree(templateConfigDirPath, onConfigDirFile, onConfigDirPath)
+
   load: ->
+    @initializeConfigDirectory()
     @loadUserConfig()
     @requireUserInitScript()