Repository Sync Skill

Efficiently manage and synchronize 26+ Git repositories with bulk operations, status monitoring, and coordinated commits.

Quick Start

Check status of all repositories

./scripts/repository_sync status all

Pull latest from all repos

./scripts/repository_sync pull all

Sync (commit + push) all work repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync work -m "End of day sync"

When to Use

• Starting a work session and need to pull latest changes across all repos

• End of day sync to commit and push all pending changes

• Checking which repos have uncommitted changes or are behind remote

• Coordinating branch changes across multiple related repositories

• Releasing updates across the entire workspace ecosystem

Prerequisites

• Git installed and configured with SSH keys

• Access to all repositories in workspace-hub

• ./scripts/repository_sync script available and executable

• Repository URLs configured in config/repos.conf

Overview

This skill enables efficient management of multiple Git repositories in the workspace-hub ecosystem. It provides tools for bulk operations, status monitoring, and coordinated synchronization across all repositories.

Quick Reference

Common Commands

List all repositories

./scripts/repository_sync list all

Check status of all repos

./scripts/repository_sync status all

Pull latest from all repos

./scripts/repository_sync pull all

Commit and push all repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync all -m "Update message"

Work with specific category

./scripts/repository_sync pull work ./scripts/repository_sync sync personal -m "Personal updates"

Repository Categories

Work Repositories

Business and client projects:

• digitalmodel

• Digital model platform

• energy

• Energy analysis tools

• frontierdeepwater

• Deepwater engineering

• aceengineer-admin

• Admin platform

• aceengineer-website

• Company website

Personal Repositories

Personal projects and experiments:

• Side projects

• Learning repositories

• Personal tools

Viewing Categories

List work repos

./scripts/repository_sync list work

List personal repos

./scripts/repository_sync list personal

List all repos

./scripts/repository_sync list all

Core Operations

1. Status Check

View the state of all repositories:

./scripts/repository_sync status all

Output indicators:

• 🟢 Clean: No changes, up to date

• 🔴 Uncommitted: Has local changes

• 🟣 Unpushed: Has commits not pushed

• 🔵 Behind: Remote has updates

• 🟡 Not cloned: Repository missing locally

2. Pull Operations

Fetch and merge from remote:

Pull all repositories

./scripts/repository_sync pull all

Pull only work repos

./scripts/repository_sync pull work

Pull specific repo

./scripts/repository_sync pull digitalmodel

3. Commit Operations

Stage and commit changes:

Commit all with default message

./scripts/repository_sync commit all

Commit with custom message

./scripts/repository_sync commit all -m "Update dependencies"

Commit work repos only

./scripts/repository_sync commit work -m "Weekly sync"

4. Push Operations

Push committed changes to remote:

Push all repositories

./scripts/repository_sync push all

Push work repos

./scripts/repository_sync push work

5. Full Sync (Commit + Push)

Complete synchronization in one command:

Sync all repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync all -m "End of day sync"

Sync work repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync work -m "Client updates"

Branch Management

List Branches

Show branches in all repos

./scripts/repository_sync branches all

Show branches in work repos

./scripts/repository_sync branches work

Fetch Remote Branches

Track all remote branches locally:

./scripts/repository_sync fetch-branches all

Sync with Main

Update feature branches with main:

Merge main into current branches

./scripts/repository_sync sync-main all

Rebase instead of merge

./scripts/repository_sync sync-main all --rebase

Switch Branches

Switch all repos to a specific branch:

Switch to main

./scripts/repository_sync switch all main

Switch to feature branch

./scripts/repository_sync switch work feature/new-design

Configuration

Repository URLs

Configure in config/repos.conf :

Repository URL Configuration

digitalmodel=git@github.com:username/digitalmodel.git energy=git@github.com:username/energy.git aceengineer-admin=git@github.com:username/aceengineer-admin.git

Categories

Defined in .gitignore :

digitalmodel/ # Work energy/ # Work personal-project/ # Personal mixed-repo/ # Work, Personal

Configure Repositories

Edit configuration

./scripts/repository_sync config

Refresh repository list

./scripts/repository_sync refresh

Workflows

Daily Development Workflow

Morning: Pull latest

./scripts/repository_sync pull all

During day: Work on code...

End of day: Sync everything

./scripts/repository_sync sync all -m "$(date +%Y-%m-%d) updates"

Feature Branch Workflow

Start feature in all work repos

./scripts/repository_sync switch work feature/new-feature

Develop across repos...

Keep in sync with main

./scripts/repository_sync sync-main work

Push feature branches

./scripts/repository_sync push work

Return to main

./scripts/repository_sync switch work main

Release Workflow

Create release branch

./scripts/repository_sync switch work release/v1.2.0

Final sync and push

./scripts/repository_sync sync work -m "Release v1.2.0 preparation"

After merge, back to main

./scripts/repository_sync switch work main ./scripts/repository_sync pull work

Batch Operations

Selective Operations

Target specific repositories:

Multiple specific repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync digitalmodel energy -m "Update"

Pattern-based (if supported)

./scripts/repository_sync sync "ace*" -m "Ace project updates"

Parallel Execution

For faster operations on many repos:

Built-in parallelization

./scripts/repository_sync pull all --parallel

Or using xargs

ls -d */ | xargs -P 4 -I {} git -C {} pull

Execution Checklist

• Verify SSH authentication (ssh -T git@github.com )

• Check repository configuration (./scripts/repository_sync list all )

• Run status check before operations (./scripts/repository_sync status all )

• Review changes in repos with uncommitted work

• Execute bulk operation with appropriate scope (all/work/personal)

• Verify operation success with status check

• Resolve any conflicts or errors reported

Error Handling

Merge Conflicts

When conflicts occur:

Status will show conflicts

./scripts/repository_sync status all

Resolve manually in affected repo

cd affected-repo git status

Fix conflicts...

git add . git commit -m "Resolve conflicts"

Continue with other repos

./scripts/repository_sync sync all

Stale Branches

Clean up old branches:

List stale remote-tracking branches

git remote prune origin --dry-run

Prune stale branches

git remote prune origin

Recovery

If things go wrong:

Reset to remote state

cd repo-name git fetch origin git reset --hard origin/main

Or restore from backup

git reflog git reset --hard HEAD@{2}

Authentication Issues

Verify SSH key

ssh -T git@github.com

Check credential helper

git config --global credential.helper

Network Issues

Test connectivity

git ls-remote origin

Use HTTPS fallback

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

Permission Denied

Check file permissions

ls -la .git/

Fix permissions

chmod -R u+rwX .git/

Metrics & Success Criteria

• Sync Time: All repos synced in < 5 minutes

• Status Accuracy: 100% accurate status reporting

• Error Rate: < 1% failed operations

• Recovery Time: Conflicts resolved within 10 minutes

• Coverage: All 26+ repos included in sync operations

Integration Points

With Workspace CLI

Launch interactive menu

./scripts/workspace

Navigate: Repository Management → Repository Sync Manager

With AI Agents

Agents can use repository sync for:

• Coordinated code changes

• Cross-repo refactoring

• Synchronized releases

• Documentation updates

Related Skills

• workspace-cli - Unified CLI interface

• compliance-check - Standards verification

• sparc-workflow - Development methodology

Windows / Git Bash Workarounds

These are learned from 44+ sync sessions on Windows MINGW64:

Path Issues

• Trailing spaces in remote filenames prevent checkout — use git config core.protectNTFS false or skip those files

• Long paths: enable git config --global core.longpaths true

• Symlinks require admin — use git config core.symlinks false as fallback

Line Endings

• Shell scripts must use LF, not CRLF — verify with file script.sh

• Fix: dos2unix script.sh or git config core.autocrlf input

MINGW Root Path

• while [ "$(pwd)" != / ] loops never terminate on MINGW (root is /d/ , not / )

• Use WORKSPACE_HUB env var for path resolution, not runtime pwd traversal

• Project key derivation: pwd → /d/workspace-hub/digitalmodel → D--workspace-hub-digitalmodel

Stash Handling

• Always stash uncommitted changes before pull: git stash push -m "pre-sync"

• After pull, git stash pop — if conflicts occur, report to user, don't auto-resolve

• Check stash list: git stash list to avoid orphaned stashes accumulating

Force-Pushed Refs

• When submodule remote was force-pushed: git fetch origin && git reset --hard origin/main

• Detect divergence: git rev-list --count HEAD..origin/main (behind) and ..HEAD (ahead)

• Never rebase diverged branches — always merge or hard-reset after user confirmation

Unregistered Submodules

• Check .gitmodules before assuming a directory is a submodule

• git submodule status shows registered vs unregistered

.gitignore Conflicts

• When remote adds files matching local .gitignore: git add -f <file> to force-track

Best Practices

Commit Messages

Use consistent format:

[scope] action: description

Examples: [all] update: Dependency refresh [work] fix: Security patches [docs] add: API documentation

Frequency

• Pull: Start of each work session

• Commit: After completing logical units

• Push: End of work session or before breaks

• Sync: Daily minimum

Verification

Always verify before pushing:

Check what will be pushed

./scripts/repository_sync status all

Review specific repo changes

cd repo-name && git diff origin/main

References

• Workspace CLI Documentation

• Repository Sync Documentation

• Development Workflow

Version History

• 1.2.0 (2026-02-12): Added MINGW root path, stash handling, divergence detection from /insights analysis of 65+ sync sessions

• 1.1.0 (2026-01-02): Upgraded to SKILL_TEMPLATE_v2 format - added Quick Start, When to Use, Execution Checklist, Error Handling consolidation, Metrics, Integration Points

• 1.0.0 (2024-10-15): Initial release with bulk operations, branch management, workflows, error handling, workspace integration