diff --git a/spacy/cli/init_pipeline.py b/spacy/cli/init_pipeline.py
index e2935184c..62d9096d9 100644
--- a/spacy/cli/init_pipeline.py
+++ b/spacy/cli/init_pipeline.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import srsly
 
 from .. import util
 from ..training.initialize import init_nlp, convert_vectors
+from ..language import Language
 from ._util import init_cli, Arg, Opt, parse_config_overrides, show_validation_error
 from ._util import import_code, setup_gpu
 
@@ -19,9 +20,9 @@ def init_vectors_cli(
     output_dir: Path = Arg(..., help="Pipeline output directory"),
     prune: int = Opt(-1, "--prune", "-p", help="Optional number of vectors to prune to"),
     truncate: int = Opt(0, "--truncate", "-t", help="Optional number of vectors to truncate to when reading in vectors file"),
-    jsonl_loc: Optional[Path]=Opt(None, "--lexemes-jsonl", "-j", help="Location of JSONL-formatted attributes file"),
     name: Optional[str] = Opt(None, "--name", "-n", help="Optional name for the word vectors, e.g. en_core_web_lg.vectors"),
     verbose: bool = Opt(False, "--verbose", "-V", "-VV", help="Display more information for debugging purposes"),
+    jsonl_loc: Optional[Path] = Opt(None, "--lexemes-jsonl", "-j", help="Location of JSONL-formatted attributes file", hidden=True),
     # fmt: on
 ):
     """Convert word vectors for use with spaCy. Will export an nlp object that
@@ -32,12 +33,7 @@ def init_vectors_cli(
     msg.info(f"Creating blank nlp object for language '{lang}'")
     nlp = util.get_lang_class(lang)()
     if jsonl_loc is not None:
-        lex_attrs = srsly.read_jsonl(jsonl_loc)
-        for attrs in lex_attrs:
-            if "settings" in attrs:
-                continue
-            lexeme = nlp.vocab[attrs["orth"]]
-            lexeme.set_attrs(**attrs)
+        update_lexemes(nlp, jsonl_loc)
     convert_vectors(nlp, vectors_loc, truncate=truncate, prune=prune, name=name)
     msg.good(f"Successfully converted {len(nlp.vocab.vectors)} vectors")
     nlp.to_disk(output_dir)
@@ -48,6 +44,16 @@ def init_vectors_cli(
     )
 
 
+def update_lexemes(nlp: Language, jsonl_loc: Path) -> None:
+    # Mostly used for backwards-compatibility and may be removed in the future
+    lex_attrs = srsly.read_jsonl(jsonl_loc)
+    for attrs in lex_attrs:
+        if "settings" in attrs:
+            continue
+        lexeme = nlp.vocab[attrs["orth"]]
+        lexeme.set_attrs(**attrs)
+
+
 @init_cli.command(
     "nlp",
     context_settings={"allow_extra_args": True, "ignore_unknown_options": True},