Command: vibe-sync

Sync AI coding tool configurations across machines via Git. Currently supports Claude Code (~/.claude/).

When using AI coding tools on multiple machines, configurations like skills, commands, agents, plugins, and user preferences need to be manually replicated on each machine.

Content	Description
settings.json	Plugin enable/disable flags
CLAUDE.md	User preferences and workflow guidelines
skills/	Skill definitions (SKILL.md + references + templates)
commands/	Custom slash commands
agents/	Agent definitions
plugins/installed_plugins.json	Plugin registry (machine paths stripped)
plugins/known_marketplaces.json	Plugin marketplace sources (machine paths stripped)

Not synced (machine-specific / ephemeral / large): plugins/cache/, projects/, telemetry/, session-env/, plans/, todos/, debug/, history.jsonl, etc.

• Node.js 18+
• git
• claude CLI (for plugin sync; installed automatically with Claude Code)

npm install -g vibe-config-sync

vibe-sync init          # Initialize and connect to a Git remote
vibe-sync push          # Export configs and push to remote

vibe-sync init                      # Initialize and pull from remote
vibe-sync pull                      # Pull, import configs, and sync plugins
vibe-sync pull --no-plugins         # Pull and import configs only (skip plugins)

Command	Description
vibe-sync init	Initialize sync repository and connect to Git remote
vibe-sync export	Collect configs from ~/.claude/ into sync repo
vibe-sync import	Restore configs from sync repo to ~/.claude/ (includes plugin sync)
vibe-sync import --no-plugins	Restore configs only, skip plugin sync
vibe-sync import --dry-run	Preview what would be imported without making changes
vibe-sync status	Show diff between local and synced configs
vibe-sync push	export + git commit + git push
vibe-sync pull	git pull + import (includes plugin sync)
vibe-sync pull --no-plugins	git pull + import, skip plugin sync
vibe-sync pull --dry-run	Preview what would be imported (skips git pull)
vibe-sync restore	List available backups
vibe-sync restore <timestamp>	Restore ~/.claude/ from a specific backup

# After changing configs on Machine A
vibe-sync push

# On Machine B, pull latest
vibe-sync pull

• Export copies config files into ~/.vibe-sync/data/, stripping machine-specific paths from plugin JSON files. Skills that are symlinks are resolved and their actual contents are copied.

• Import restores files from ~/.vibe-sync/data/ to ~/.claude/, validating JSON structure before overwriting. Plugin JSON files are used as a manifest only (never copied directly) — the claude CLI installs plugins and writes correct registry files with local paths. Already-installed plugins are detected and skipped.

• Backup is created automatically at ~/.vibe-sync/backups/claude/<timestamp>/ before every import. Use vibe-sync restore to list or recover from backups.

The overall strategy is last-write-wins with no conflict detection. There is no field-level merge — the most recent import overwrites the target.

Whole-file overwrite. The sync repo version replaces the local version entirely.

Directory-level merge + file-level overwrite:

Scenario	Behavior
Repo has skills/foo/, local does not	foo/ is added
Both have skills/foo/SKILL.md	Repo version overwrites local
Local has skills/bar/, repo does not	bar/ is kept (not deleted)
Repo's skills/foo/ is missing a file that local has	Local file is kept

In short: new content is added, existing content is overwritten, but nothing is deleted from the local side.

• Export: symlinks are resolved via realpathSync and the actual file contents are copied — the symlink itself is not preserved
• Import: copied as regular directories, no symlink recreation needed. This ensures skills work across machines regardless of the original symlink target path

Plugin JSON files (installed_plugins.json, known_marketplaces.json) are exported with machine-specific paths stripped. On import, they are not copied to ~/.claude/plugins/ — instead they serve as a manifest. The claude CLI is invoked to install each plugin, and it writes correct registry files with local paths as a side effect. Already-installed plugins (detected by installPath) are skipped to avoid redundant network operations.

• If both machines modify different configs and then sync, the machine that runs import last will lose its local changes (a timestamped backup exists at ~/.vibe-sync/backups/claude/ for manual recovery)
• Deleted files/skills on one machine will not be deleted on the other — only additions and modifications propagate
• Symlinked skills are resolved and copied as regular directories, so the synced version is a standalone snapshot independent of the original symlink target

Variable	Description	Default
CLAUDE_HOME	Override Claude config directory	~/.claude

MIT