An Existing Repository

A repository that has configuration of its own takes profiles as a new one does, and loses nothing: devset keeps every file it finds, and shows how each differs from its profile. This page is what adopting real repositories taught.

Look First

devset add atxp/rust --git https://github.com/atomix-labs/atxp --tag v0.20.0 --dry-run

--dry-run lists what the run would create, change or keep, and writes nothing. Taking one layer at a time, and committing between, keeps each step small enough to read.

What devset Does with What Is There

• A file a profile owns whole, already there, is adopted: devset records the profile’s version as the file’s base and keeps the repository’s file. devset status then shows it edited, with what differs. Keep it, and it stays drift; take the profile’s with devset apply --force, which restores owned files only; or, when another layer should provide it, choose with from.
• Keys a profile owns in a TOML, JSON or YAML file are adopted one by one: the repository’s values are kept, the keys it lacks are written, and every other key, comment and layout stays its own. devset diff shows each value the profile would change.
• A block is written at the end of a text file, a .gitignore or an AGENTS.md, and stays wherever you move it.
• A scaffold writes nothing where the repository has its own: a workspace already there is the workspace.

What to Expect

The same few things come up in most repositories:

• Recipe names that clash. A collection with a recipe spine, as atxp’s just profile is, owns names such as check, test and nightly. A repository’s own recipe by one of those names clashes with it: rename it <verb>-<name>, as test-unit, and the verb runs it with the rest.
• Workflows the profiles replace. A repository’s own CI, bump or docs workflows overlap the ones the profiles bring. Retire them, or keep a job the profiles have no counterpart for.
• Exclusions the repository keeps. A formatter’s or a linter’s own exclusions are the repository’s keys, kept on adoption; add what the profiles’ tools write, as .just/** or CHANGELOG.md, where a check trips on it.
• Older copies of shared files. A file the repository copied from the same place long ago, a skill or a workflow, shows as edited; devset diff shows whether the difference is worth keeping, and apply --force takes the profile’s.
• Checks that are new to it. A spell checker, rustdoc over private items or a stricter lint finds real problems in code that was never held to them: fix them, or allow each by hand in the repository’s own configuration, which the profile leaves to it.

Done

devset status --exit-code passes once nothing has drifted: every owned file is its profile’s, and the repository’s edits are in merge files, where they are its own. Commit .devset/ with the files, and In CI keeps it that way.