Sharing Config Across Repositories

Use extends to maintain shared AI tool config in one organizational repository and inherit it across all your projects.

Setup

Step 1: Create a shared config repo

Create a repository (e.g., my-org/ai-config) with canonical AgentsMesh files:

ai-config/
  .agentsmesh/
    rules/
      _root.md        # Org-wide root rule
      security.md     # Org-wide security rule
      typescript.md   # Org-wide TypeScript standards
    commands/
      commit.md       # Shared commit command
      review.md       # Shared review command
    permissions.yaml  # Org-wide permissions baseline
  agentsmesh.yaml

Tag releases:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

Step 2: Reference from each project

In each project’s agentsmesh.yaml:

extends:
  - name: org-standards
    source: github:my-org/ai-config@v1.0.0
    features: [rules, commands, permissions]

Step 3: Generate

agentsmesh generate

AgentsMesh fetches my-org/ai-config@v1.0.0 (cached in ~/.agentsmesh/cache/), merges the shared rules/commands/permissions with the project’s local canonical config, and generates output for all targets.

Merge precedence

Local canonical config always wins over extended sources:

Priority (highest to lowest):
1. .agentsmesh/ (project-local)
2. .agentsmesh/packs/ (installed packs)
3. extends sources (shared org config)

If your project defines a security.md rule and the shared repo also defines one, your local version takes precedence.

Upgrading shared config

When my-org/ai-config releases v2.0.0:

# Bump the version in each project
extends:
  - name: org-standards
    source: github:my-org/ai-config@v2.0.0
    features: [rules, commands, permissions]

# Refresh cache and regenerate
agentsmesh generate --refresh-cache

Tip

Pin to version tags (@v2.0.0) for reproducible builds. Using @main means you get the latest on every cache refresh — suitable for development but risky for production projects.

Monorepo setup

For monorepos with a shared config directory:

packages/my-app/agentsmesh.yaml

extends:
  - name: workspace-rules
    source: ../shared-ai-config
    features: [rules, commands, permissions]

Local path sources don’t cache — they’re read directly every time.

Cherry-picking from shared config

If the shared repo has many rules but you only want some:

extends:
  - name: org-standards
    source: github:my-org/ai-config@v1.0.0
    features: [rules]
    pick:
      rules: [security, typescript]   # only inherit these two rules

Delegating all config to shared

For projects that want to inherit everything from the org:

version: 1
targets:
  - claude-code
  - cursor

extends:
  - name: org-standards
    source: github:my-org/ai-config@v1.0.0
    # no features filter — inherit everything

The project has no local canonical config of its own. All rules, commands, etc. come from the shared repo.