How to generate .angular-cli.json file in Angular Cli?

Since Angular version 6 .angular-cli.json is deprecated. That file was replaced by angular.json file which supports workspaces.

In Angular 6, .angular-cli.json has been replaced with angular.json

For Angular < 6:

Create a new file with name '.angular-cli.json' and add this file in your main directory.

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "project": {
    "name": "my-app"
  },
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
        "styles.css"
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ],
  "e2e": {
    "protractor": {
      "config": "./protractor.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "lint": [
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.app.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.spec.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "e2e/tsconfig.e2e.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    }
  ],
  "test": {
    "karma": {
      "config": "./karma.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "styleExt": "css",
    "component": {}
  }
}

I got this same error in my current project and was confused because I'm running the application / ng serve in one terminal, but got this when I tried to generate a component from another terminal. .angular-cli.json was already there and correct. So what gives?

I realized that I used the shortcut to open VisualStudio Code's internal terminal -- which opened the terminal to the *root of the project * (like most IDEs). The project contains other things in addition to the Angular application folder that has the .angular-cli.json file in question. I just had to cd to the right folder and run ng g c again and things were fine.

In my case it was just a silly error. I thought I'd come back to share in order to save people a real headache for something so simple. I see that Shiva actually has mentioned this above, but I thought I would give a bit more detail so it doesn't get overlooked.