---
name: ru
description: "Repo Updater - Multi-repo synchronization with AI-assisted review orchestration. Parallel sync, agent-sweep for dirty repos, ntm integration, git plumbing. 17K LOC Bash CLI."
---

# RU - Repo Updater

A comprehensive Bash CLI for synchronizing dozens or hundreds of GitHub repositories. Beyond basic sync, RU includes a full AI-assisted code review system and agent-sweep capability for automatically processing uncommitted changes across your entire projects directory.

## Why This Exists

When you work with 47+ repos (personal projects, forks, dependencies), keeping them synchronized manually is tedious. But synchronization is just the beginning—RU also orchestrates AI coding agents to review issues, process PRs, and commit uncommitted work at scale.

**The problem it solves:**
- Manual `cd ~/project && git pull` for each repo
- Missing updates that accumulate into merge conflicts
- Dirty repos that never get committed
- Issues and PRs that pile up across repositories
- No coordination for AI agents working across repos

## Critical Concepts

### Git Plumbing, Not Porcelain

RU uses git plumbing commands exclusively—never parses human-readable output:

```bash
# WRONG: Locale-dependent, version-fragile
git pull 2>&1 | grep "Already up to date"

# RIGHT: Machine-readable plumbing
git rev-list --left-right --count HEAD...@{u}
git status --porcelain
git rev-parse HEAD
```

### Stream Separation

Human-readable output goes to stderr; data to stdout:

```bash
ru sync --json 2>/dev/null | jq '.summary'
# Progress shows in terminal, JSON pipes to jq
```

### No Global `cd`

All git operations use `git -C`. Never changes working directory.

## Essential Commands

### Sync (Primary Use Case)

```bash
# Sync all configured repos
ru sync

# Parallel sync (much faster)
ru sync -j8

# Dry run - see what would happen
ru sync --dry-run

# Resume interrupted sync
ru sync --resume

# JSON output for scripting
ru sync --json 2>/dev/null | jq '.summary'
```

### Status (Read-Only Check)

```bash
# Check all repos without modifying
ru status

# JSON output
ru status --json
```

### Repo Management

```bash
# Initialize configuration
ru init

# Add repos to sync list
ru add owner/repo
ru add https://github.com/owner/repo
ru add owner/repo@branch as custom-name

# Remove from list
ru remove owner/repo

# List configured repos
ru list

# Detect orphaned repos (in projects dir but not in list)
ru prune           # Preview
ru prune --delete  # Actually remove
ru prune --archive # Move to archive directory
```

### Diagnostics

```bash
ru doctor      # System health check
ru self-update # Update ru itself
```

## AI-Assisted Review System

RU includes a powerful review orchestration system for managing AI-assisted code review across your repositories.

### Two-Phase Review Workflow

**Phase 1: Discovery (`--plan`)**
- Queries GitHub for open issues and PRs across all repos
- Scores items by priority using label analysis and age
- Creates isolated git worktrees for safe review
- Spawns Claude Code sessions in terminal multiplexer

**Phase 2: Application (`--apply`)**
- Reviews proposed changes from discovery phase
- Runs quality gates (ShellCheck, tests, lint)
- Optionally pushes approved changes (`--push`)

```bash
# Discover and plan reviews
ru review --plan

# After reviewing AI suggestions
ru review --apply --push
```

### Priority Scoring Algorithm

| Factor | Points | Logic |
|--------|--------|-------|
| **Type** | 0-20 | PRs: +20, Issues: +10, Draft PRs: -15 |
| **Labels** | 0-50 | security/critical: +50, bug/urgent: +30 |
| **Age (bugs)** | 0-50 | >60 days: +50, >30 days: +30 |
| **Recency** | 0-15 | Updated <3 days: +15, <7 days: +10 |
| **Staleness** | -20 | Recently reviewed: -20 |

Priority levels: CRITICAL (≥150), HIGH (≥100), NORMAL (≥50), LOW (<50)

### Session Drivers

| Driver | Description | Best For |
|--------|-------------|----------|
| `auto` | Auto-detect best available | Default |
| `ntm` | Named Tmux Manager integration | Multi-agent workflows |
| `local` | Direct tmux sessions | Simple setups |

```bash
ru review --mode=ntm --plan
ru review -j 4 --plan  # Parallel sessions
```

### Cost Budgets

```bash
ru review --max-repos=10 --plan
ru review --max-runtime=30 --plan  # Minutes
ru review --skip-days=14 --plan    # Skip recently reviewed
ru review --analytics              # View past review stats
```

## Agent Sweep (Automated Dirty Repo Processing)

The `ru agent-sweep` command orchestrates AI coding agents to automatically process repositories with uncommitted changes.

### Basic Usage

```bash
# Process all repos with uncommitted changes
ru agent-sweep

# Dry run - preview what would be processed
ru agent-sweep --dry-run

# Process 4 repos in parallel
ru agent-sweep -j4

# Filter to specific repos
ru agent-sweep --repos="myproject*"

# Include release step after commit
ru agent-sweep --with-release

# Resume interrupted sweep
ru agent-sweep --resume

# Start fresh
ru agent-sweep --restart
```

### Three-Phase Agent Workflow

**Phase 1: Planning** (`--phase1-timeout`, default 300s)
- Claude Code analyzes uncommitted changes
- Determines which files should be staged (respecting denylist)
- Generates structured commit message

**Phase 2: Commit** (`--phase2-timeout`, default 600s)
- Validates the plan (file existence, denylist compliance)
- Stages approved files, creates commit
- Runs quality gates
- Optionally pushes to remote

**Phase 3: Release** (`--phase3-timeout`, default 300s, requires `--with-release`)
- Analyzes commit history since last tag
- Determines version bump (patch/minor/major)
- Creates git tag and optionally GitHub release

### Execution Modes

```bash
--execution-mode=agent  # Full AI-driven workflow (default)
--execution-mode=plan   # Phase 1 only: generate plan, stop
--execution-mode=apply  # Phase 2+3: execute existing plan
```

### Preflight Checks

Each repo is validated before spawning an agent:

| Check | Skip Reason |
|-------|-------------|
| Is git repository | `not_a_git_repo` |
| Git email configured | `git_email_not_configured` |
| Not a shallow clone | `shallow_clone` |
| No rebase in progress | `rebase_in_progress` |
| No merge in progress | `merge_in_progress` |
| Not detached HEAD | `detached_HEAD` |
| Has upstream branch | `no_upstream_branch` |
| Not diverged | `diverged_from_upstream` |

### Security Guardrails

**File Denylist** - Never committed regardless of agent output:

| Category | Patterns |
|----------|----------|
| **Secrets** | `.env`, `*.pem`, `*.key`, `id_rsa*`, `credentials.json` |
| **Build artifacts** | `node_modules`, `__pycache__`, `dist`, `build`, `target` |
| **Logs/temp** | `*.log`, `*.tmp`, `*.swp`, `.DS_Store` |
| **IDE files** | `.idea`, `.vscode`, `*.iml` |

**Secret Scanning:**

```bash
--secret-scan=none   # Disable
--secret-scan=warn   # Warn but continue (default)
--secret-scan=block  # Block push on detection
```

### Exit Codes

| Code | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| `0` | All repos processed successfully |
| `1` | Some repos failed (agent error, timeout) |
| `2` | Quality gate failures (secrets, tests) |
| `3` | System error (ntm, tmux missing) |
| `4` | Invalid arguments |
| `5` | Interrupted (use `--resume`) |

## Configuration

### XDG-Compliant Directory Structure

```
~/.config/ru/
├── config               # Main config file
└── repos.d/
    ├── public.list      # Public repos (one per line)
    └── private.list     # Private repos (gitignored)

~/.local/state/ru/
├── logs/
│   └── YYYY-MM-DD/
├── agent-sweep/
│   ├── state.json
│   └── results.ndjson
└── review/
    ├── digests/
    └── results/
```

### Repo List Format

```
# ~/.config/ru/repos.d/public.list
owner/repo
another-owner/another-repo@develop
private-org/repo@main as local-name
https://github.com/owner/repo.git
```

### Layout Modes

| Layout | Example Path |
|--------|--------------|
| `flat` | `/data/projects/repo` |
| `owner-repo` | `/data/projects/owner_repo` |
| `full` | `/data/projects/github.com/owner/repo` |

```bash
ru config --set LAYOUT=owner-repo
```

### Per-Repo Configuration

```yaml
# ~/.../your-repo/.ru-agent.yml
agent_sweep:
  enabled: true
  max_file_size: 5242880  # 5MB
  extra_context: "This is a Python project using FastAPI"
  pre_hook: "make lint"
  post_hook: "make test"
  denylist_extra:
    - "*.backup"
    - "internal/*"
```

## ntm Integration

When ntm (Named Tmux Manager) is available, RU uses its robot mode API:

| Function | Purpose |
|----------|---------|
| `ntm --robot-spawn` | Create Claude Code session in new tmux pane |
| `ntm --robot-send` | Send prompts with chunking for long messages |
| `ntm --robot-wait` | Block until session completes with timeout |
| `ntm --robot-activity` | Query real-time session state |
| `ntm --robot-status` | Get status of all managed sessions |
| `ntm --robot-interrupt` | Send Ctrl+C to interrupt long operations |

## Output Modes

### JSON Mode (`--json`)

```bash
ru sync --json 2>/dev/null
```

```json
{
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "timestamp": "2025-01-03T14:30:00Z",
  "summary": {
    "total": 47,
    "cloned": 8,
    "updated": 34,
    "current": 3,
    "conflicts": 2
  },
  "repos": [...]
}
```

### NDJSON Results Logging

```json
{"repo":"mcp_agent_mail","action":"pull","status":"updated","duration":2}
{"repo":"beads_viewer","action":"clone","status":"cloned","duration":5}
```

### jq Examples

```bash
# Get paths of all cloned repos
ru sync --json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.repos[] | select(.action=="clone") | .path'

# Count by status
cat ~/.local/state/ru/logs/latest/results.ndjson | jq -s 'group_by(.status) | map({status: .[0].status, count: length})'
```

## Update Strategies

```bash
ru sync                        # Default: ff-only (safest)
ru sync --rebase               # Rebase local commits
ru sync --autostash            # Auto-stash before pull
ru sync --force                # Force update (use with caution)
```

| Strategy | Behavior |
|----------|----------|
| `ff-only` | Fast-forward only; fails if diverged |
| `rebase` | Rebase local commits on top of remote |
| `merge` | Create merge commit if needed |

## Quality Gates

Before applying changes, RU runs automated quality gates:

**Auto-detection by project type:**

| Project Type | Test Command | Lint Command |
|--------------|--------------|--------------|
| npm/yarn | `npm test` | `npm run lint` |
| Cargo (Rust) | `cargo test` | `cargo clippy` |
| Go | `go test ./...` | `golangci-lint run` |
| Python | `pytest` | `ruff check` |
| Makefile | `make test` | `make lint` |
| Shell scripts | (none) | `shellcheck *.sh` |

## Rate Limiting

RU includes an adaptive parallelism governor:

| Condition | Action |
|-----------|--------|
| GitHub remaining < 100 | Reduce parallelism to 1 |
| GitHub remaining < 500 | Reduce parallelism by 50% |
| Model 429 detected | Pause new sessions for 60s |
| Error rate > 50% | Open circuit breaker |

## Exit Codes (Sync)

| Code | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| `0` | Success - all repos synced or current |
| `1` | Partial failure - some repos failed |
| `2` | Conflicts exist |
| `3` | Dependency error (gh missing, auth failed) |
| `4` | Invalid arguments |
| `5` | Interrupted (use `--resume`) |

## Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Default |
|----------|-------------|---------|
| `RU_PROJECTS_DIR` | Base directory for repos | `/data/projects` |
| `RU_LAYOUT` | Path layout | `flat` |
| `RU_PARALLEL` | Parallel workers | `1` |
| `RU_TIMEOUT` | Network timeout (seconds) | `30` |
| `RU_UPDATE_STRATEGY` | Pull strategy | `ff-only` |
| `GH_TOKEN` | GitHub token | (from gh CLI) |

## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues

| Issue | Fix |
|-------|-----|
| `gh: command not found` | `brew install gh && gh auth login` |
| `gh: auth required` | `gh auth login` or set `GH_TOKEN` |
| `Cannot fast-forward` | Use `--rebase` or push first |
| `dirty working tree` | Commit changes or use `--autostash` |
| `diverged_from_upstream` | `git fetch && git rebase origin/main` |

### Debug Mode

```bash
# View latest run log
cat ~/.local/state/ru/logs/latest/run.log

# View specific repo log
cat ~/.local/state/ru/logs/latest/repos/mcp_agent_mail.log

# Run with verbose output
ru agent-sweep --verbose --debug
```

### Preflight Failure Debugging

```bash
# View why repos were skipped
ru agent-sweep --json 2>/dev/null | jq '.repos[] | select(.status == "skipped")'
```

## Installation

```bash
# One-liner
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Dicklesworthstone/repo_updater/main/install.sh | bash

# Verify
ru doctor
```

## Architecture Notes

- **~17,700 LOC** pure Bash, no external dependencies beyond git, curl, gh
- **Work-stealing queue** for parallel sync with atomic dequeue
- **Portable locking** via `mkdir` (works on all POSIX systems)
- **Path security validation** prevents traversal attacks
- **Retry with exponential backoff** for network operations

## Integration with Flywheel

| Tool | Integration |
|------|-------------|
| **Agent Mail** | Notify agents when repos are updated; coordinate reviews |
| **BV** | Track repo sync as recurring beads |
| **CASS** | Search past sync sessions and agent-sweep logs |
| **NTM** | Robot mode API for session orchestration |
| **DCG** | RU runs inside DCG sandbox protection |