shared-config-sync skill

setup-shared-config-sync

This skill pushes local edits in ~/.claude-config/ to the sync repo's remote, so other machines can pull them. It is the counterpart to the periodic git pull --rebase --autostash that the framework's example sync.sh runs on a timer: that pulls upstream into the local clone; this skill pushes local changes upstream.

Adopter overrides

Before running its default behaviour, this skill consults setup-shared-config-sync.md in the personal layer (.apache-magpie-local/ when the project adopted Magpie, falling back to the main checkout's in a linked worktree, or <git-common-dir>/apache-magpie/ when Magpie is only installed; applied first, wins on conflict) and .apache-magpie-overrides/setup-shared-config-sync.md (committed, project-wide) in the adopter repo, if present, and applies any agent-readable overrides it finds. See docs/setup/agentic-overrides.md for the contract.

Hard rule: agents NEVER modify the snapshot under <adopter-repo>/.apache-magpie/. Local modifications go in the override file; framework changes go via PR to apache/magpie.

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Hardcoded path

The sync repo lives at ~/.claude-config/, the convention documented in docs/setup/secure-agent-setup.md → Syncing user-scope config across machines. The path is intentionally not parameterised: the doc names one canonical location, so adopters with a sync repo elsewhere fork this skill.

The default remote

When the skill has to bootstrap a missing ~/.claude-config/ (see Bootstrapping a missing ~/.claude-config/), it resolves the remote to clone or create in this order:

1. An explicit URL the user passed this invocation (e.g. "bootstrap from git@gitlab.com:me/claude-config.git") wins over everything.
2. The default GitHub convention: git@github.com:<handle>/claude-config.git, the SSH form the doc's Setting up a fresh host snippet uses. <handle> comes from gh api user --jq .login (requires an authenticated gh). The repo name is claude-config.

If neither resolves (gh is missing or unauthenticated and the user gave no URL), ask the user for the remote URL rather than guessing. Any remote the skill creates is private (see the golden rules); never public.

Golden rules

• Never force-push. No --force, no --force-with-lease, no --no-verify, no rewriting commits already pushed to the remote. The sync repo is the source of truth between machines; rewriting its history can lose work from a machine that has not been pulled here yet.
• Never modify a file outside ~/.claude-config/. If the user's intended change is to a file in ~/.claude/ directly (not via a symlink into ~/.claude-config/), surface that and stop; they need a different action, not this skill. The one exception is the fresh-host symlink wiring during bootstrap (ln -sfn ~/.claude-config/... ~/.claude/...), and only after the user confirms it; see Bootstrapping a missing ~/.claude-config/.
• Any remote the skill creates is private. When bootstrap creates a new remote (gh repo create), it always passes --private: never public, never --internal unless the user asks. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md carries personal collaboration preferences and the scripts may reference internal paths; a public config repo leaks both. This mirrors the doc's "a private git repository (private, not public …)" rule.
• Confirm before creating or pushing to a new remote. Creating a GitHub repo and pushing the first commit is outward-facing and hard to reverse. Bootstrap shows the exact plan (repo name, --private visibility, remote URL, the files it will scaffold) and waits for explicit approval before running gh repo create or the initial git push. Cloning an existing remote is lower-risk (it writes only into the new ~/.claude-config/ checkout) and may proceed without a separate confirmation, though the skill still reports what it cloned.
• Never clobber a non-repo ~/.claude-config/. If the path exists but is not a git working tree, stop and surface it; do not rm it or git init over it. Bootstrap only ever creates a ~/.claude-config/ that was entirely absent.
• Pull-with-rebase first. If git fetch shows the local checkout is behind the remote, run git pull --rebase --autostash before the commit + push. Concurrent work from another machine takes precedence; the local commit lands on top, as the example sync.sh does for the periodic pull.
• Draft the commit message; never auto-send. For every uncommitted change, draft a one-line commit subject (plus a 2–4 line body if the change merits it) and show it to the user. The user replies "go" / "yes" / edits / "split into two commits" etc. before any git commit runs.
• Use the resolved attribution trailer, added with --trailer. Agent-authored commits carry the trailer the user's commit-attribution convention names, resolved per commit-attribution.md (the sync repo has no project file, so the user's choice applies, else Generated-by: <agent> (<model>)), where <agent> and <model> are the agent and model you are actually running as (e.g. Claude (Opus 4.8), OpenCode (Big Pickle)). Add it with git commit --trailer, never in the message body. Do not hardcode either, and never use Co-Authored-By:. Canonical wording: AGENTS.md → Commit and PR conventions.
• Stop on lock conflict. The example sync.sh uses flock --nonblock on ~/.claude-config/.sync.lock so two sync runs do not race. If .sync.lock is held, do not steal the lock; surface the conflict and stop. The other process is likely the user's recurring sync timer.

Bootstrapping a missing ~/.claude-config/

Reached from Walk-through step 1 when the sync repo is entirely absent. The goal is a working ~/.claude-config/ git checkout wired to a private remote, by cloning the default remote if it exists or creating it if not. The skill touches nothing outside the new checkout except the confirmed fresh-host symlink wiring at the end.

Step B1 — resolve the remote

Resolve the remote per The default remote: an explicit URL the user passed, else git@github.com:<handle>/claude-config.git with <handle> from gh api user --jq .login. If neither resolves (gh missing/unauthenticated and no URL given), ask the user for the remote URL and stop until they provide one; do not guess a handle.

Step B2 — does the remote exist?

• GitHub default: gh repo view <handle>/claude-config: exit 0 ⇒ exists, non-zero ⇒ does not exist. If the error is auth/permission rather than "not found", surface it and stop rather than assuming absence.
• Explicit non-GitHub URL: git ls-remote <url>: exit 0 ⇒ exists, non-zero ⇒ does not exist / unreachable.

Step B3a — remote exists → clone

git clone <url> ~/.claude-config. This low-risk path (it writes only the new checkout) may proceed without a separate create-confirmation; report the clone result. Then continue to Step B4 — fresh-host symlink wiring and resume the sync walk-through from step 2 (typically "in sync, nothing to do").

Step B3b — remote does not exist → create + scaffold + push

Creating an outward-facing remote is confirm-first (golden rule). Show the full plan and wait for explicit approval: the repo name, --private visibility, the remote URL, and the files to be scaffolded. On approval:

1. Create the private remote.

   • GitHub: gh repo create <handle>/claude-config --private --description "Personal Claude Code shared config (synced across machines)" (no --clone, no auto-init; the local scaffold below becomes the first commit).
   • Non-GitHub explicit URL: the skill cannot create the remote; tell the user to create an empty private repo at that URL and re-invoke.

2. Init + scaffold the minimal layout under ~/.claude-config/, matching the doc's Layout and A minimal sync.sh:

   git init -b main ~/.claude-config
   ~/.claude-config/
   ├── README.md      # what's in the repo + per-machine install steps
   ├── sync.sh        # the pull/commit/push helper (chmod +x)
   ├── scripts/       # (empty; hooks land here as the user adopts them)
   └── .gitignore     # excludes .sync.lock and any *.credentials* / secrets
   

   sync.sh is the verbatim script from the doc's A minimal sync.sh section. .gitignore must at minimum carry .sync.lock (the flock file) so the lock is never committed.

3. Initial commit + push. git add the scaffolded files individually (never git add -A; see Walk-through step 5), commit with the resolved attribution trailer (via --trailer), git remote add origin <url>, then git push -u origin main.

Step B4 — fresh-host symlink wiring

The new (or freshly cloned) checkout only protects this host once its tracked artifacts are symlinked into ~/.claude/. This is the one write outside ~/.claude-config/ the skill performs, and only after the user confirms. Offer to run the Setting up a fresh host wiring (the ln -sfn ~/.claude-config/… ~/.claude/… block, which mvs any pre-existing real file to .bak before symlinking). If the user declines, point them at that doc section. Wire only the artifacts the checkout contains; on a brand-new scaffold scripts/ may be empty, so this step is often a no-op beyond CLAUDE.md.

Walk-through

1. cd ~/.claude-config and verify it is a git working tree pointing at a private remote.

   • If the directory does not exist at all, do not stop — bootstrap it: jump to Bootstrapping a missing ~/.claude-config/, then resume the sync walk-through from step 2.
   • If the directory exists but is not a git repo, surface that and stop (per the golden rule — never clobber a non-repo path). The user has a stray ~/.claude-config/; they resolve it, then re-invoke.
   • If it is a git repo, continue to step 2.

2. git fetch origin to learn the remote's current state. Report:

   • commits behind upstream (will be pulled in step 4),
   • commits ahead of upstream (committed local work not yet pushed),
   • uncommitted working-tree modifications (git status --short),
   • untracked files the user may want to either add or .gitignore.

3. Decide the action. The four reachable states:

   • In sync, nothing to do. No uncommitted changes, no unpushed commits, not behind. Report and stop.
   • Push-only. Committed local work needs to land on the remote, but not behind and no uncommitted edits. Pull-with-rebase is unnecessary; go straight to push.
   • Commit-then-push. Uncommitted edits exist. Walk each modified file with the user (diff + draft commit message + approval), commit each batch the user accepts, then push.
   • Pull-then-commit-then-push. Uncommitted edits and behind upstream. Run git pull --rebase --autostash first; if rebase succeeds cleanly, proceed to the commit-then-push flow. If rebase conflicts, stop and surface — conflicts in ~/.claude-config/ are the user's to resolve, not the skill's.

4. Pull-with-rebase (when applicable). Run git pull --rebase --autostash. Report what changed (commits pulled, files touched).

5. Stage + commit (when applicable). For each modification the user approves:

   • git add <file> for the specific file (never git add -A or git add . — the sync repo is the user's most personal directory and git add -A risks staging an editor swap file or a .DS_Store you forgot to gitignore),
   • git commit -m '<subject>' -m '<body>' --trailer '<trailer>' with the approved message. <trailer> is the resolved attribution trailer (see the golden rule above) — the actual agent and model you are running as, not a hardcoded value; omit --trailer when the convention is none.

   Probe the gpg-agent cache first when commit.gpgsign is true: a token-backed key with a cold cache stalls this commit until gpg: signing failed: Timeout. Surface a dialogue, or hand the user the command — see AGENTS.md → Commit and PR conventions.

6. Push. git push to the upstream branch. No --force. A rejected (non-fast-forward) push means another machine pushed after our git fetch in step 2; stop, surface, and recommend re-invoking the skill (which repeats the fetch + pull-with-rebase). Do not retry in-flight.

After the push lands

Report:

• which commit SHA is now on the remote,
• a one-line summary of what was pushed (so the user can confirm in their terminal scrollback),
• whether other-machine pulls are needed (the timer-driven sync.sh on the user's other hosts picks the change up on its next run; do not nag about this).

If the changes touched a file under ~/.claude-config/scripts/ that is symlinked from ~/.claude/scripts/, also note that the change is immediately live on this host, since the symlink resolves to the modified file. No re-cp needed.