agentsmesh generate

Generate target-specific config files from the canonical .agentsmesh/ directory. This is the primary command you run after editing canonical files.

Usage

agentsmesh generate [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
--targets <csv>	Comma-separated list of target IDs to generate for. Defaults to all configured targets.
--global	Generate user-level config from ~/.agentsmesh/ instead of project-local config (e.g. claude-code, antigravity, codex-cli; Cursor writes full ~/.cursor/ global surfaces including rules/, AGENTS.md, hooks, ignore, MCP, skills, agents, commands).
--dry-run	Preview changes without writing any files.
--check	Verify sync status only. Exit code 1 if out of sync.
--force	Bypass collaboration lock violations.
--refresh-cache	Re-fetch remote extends sources before generating.
--no-cache	Alias for --refresh-cache.

Examples

Generate for all configured targets

agentsmesh generate

Reads agentsmesh.yaml, loads all canonical sources, and writes output for each enabled target.

Generate for specific targets only

agentsmesh generate --targets claude-code,cursor

Only generates .claude/ and .cursor/ output, ignoring other configured targets.

Generate global user-level config

agentsmesh init --global
agentsmesh generate --global --targets claude-code,antigravity,codex-cli,cursor

Reads canonical files from ~/.agentsmesh/ and writes user-level outputs per target (for example Claude Code under ~/.claude/ including hooks.json, ~/.claudeignore, skills under ~/.claude/skills/ and mirrored to ~/.agents/skills/ only when Codex is not also a global target, optional output-styles/ when outputStyle: true, plus ~/.claude.json for MCP; Antigravity under ~/.gemini/antigravity/; Codex CLI under ~/.codex/ plus ~/.agents/skills/; and Cursor under ~/.cursor/ with rules/*.mdc, aggregated AGENTS.md, MCP, hooks, cursorignore, skills, agents, and commands). See the supported tools matrix for the full global-mode map.

The rest of the maintenance commands (install, diff, lint, watch, check, merge, and matrix) also accept --global and operate on the same ~/.agentsmesh/ canonical root.

Preview changes without writing

agentsmesh generate --dry-run

Shows a unified diff of what would change without writing any files. Useful before committing or during debugging.

CI check mode

agentsmesh generate --check

Exits 0 if generated files match the lock file. Exits 1 if drift is detected. Use this in CI pipelines instead of agentsmesh check when you want the full generation path to be verified.

Force through locks

agentsmesh generate --force

Bypasses collaboration.lock_features restrictions. Use when you intentionally need to update locked features like mcp or permissions.

Refresh remote extends

agentsmesh generate --refresh-cache
agentsmesh generate --no-cache   # alias

Forces a re-fetch of all remote extends sources. Without this flag, AgentsMesh uses the local cache at ~/.agentsmesh/cache/.

What generate does

1. Load config — parse agentsmesh.yaml, merge agentsmesh.local.yaml, validate schema.
2. Load canonical sources — read .agentsmesh/ (or ~/.agentsmesh/ with --global), resolve extends (cache or remote), load installed packs, merge everything.
3. Generate per target — for each enabled target, run target-specific generators for rules, commands, agents, skills, MCP, hooks, ignore, and permissions.
4. Rewrite references — internal .agentsmesh/ file paths are rewritten to target-relative paths.
5. Resolve collisions — detect overlapping output paths, prefer native over embedded.
6. Write output — create target directories, write all files, update the lock file.
7. Clean stale files — remove previously generated files no longer in the output set.

Output locations

Each target writes to its own native directory (e.g. claude-code → .claude/, cursor → .cursor/, copilot → .github/). The shared AGENTS.md at the project root is emitted by every target that uses it as a root-instruction surface. See the supported tools matrix for the exact project-scope and global-scope paths for every target.

Global mode path resolution

When --global is used, AgentsMesh sets the project root to the user’s home directory (homedir()). All target path constants — such as .cursor/rules/, .claude/skills/, or Documents/Cline/Hooks/ — are relative to that root, so they resolve to the expected ~/-prefixed locations (e.g. ~/.cursor/rules/, ~/.claude/skills/).

If ~/.agentsmesh/agentsmesh.yaml does not exist, --global commands fail with a scope-aware error pointing at the missing path and suggesting agentsmesh init --global (or dropping the flag to operate on the current project). The check applies uniformly to generate, import, lint, check, diff, watch, and matrix.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success — all files generated.
1	Error or drift detected (with --check).