Configuration — config.yaml & ignore files

Everything repowise knows about a repository lives in a .repowise/ directory at the repo root, created on the first repowise init. The main configuration file is .repowise/config.yaml — repowise writes it for you during init, and you can edit it by hand afterwards.

The .repowise/ directory

.repowise/
├── wiki.db          # SQLite — pages, symbols, graph, git metadata, decisions
├── lancedb/         # Vector search index
├── omissions/       # Distill omission store + savings ledger (omissions.db)
├── config.yaml      # Provider, model, embedder, exclude patterns
├── health-rules.json # Per-file code-health marker overrides
├── state.json       # Last sync commit, page counts, token usage
├── mcp.json         # MCP server configuration
└── .env             # API keys (gitignored automatically)

repowise adds .repowise/ to your .gitignore automatically. It's a local cache, not a source of truth — don't commit it.

config.yaml

Generated after the first init and updated when you pass flags like --commit-limit or --follow-renames. You can also edit it directly; changes take effect on the next init, update, serve, or mcp run.

provider: anthropic                  # LLM provider
model: claude-sonnet-4-6             # Model identifier
embedder: gemini                     # Embedding provider for semantic search
reasoning: auto                      # auto | off | none | minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh | max
exclude_patterns:                    # Gitignore-style patterns
  - vendor/
  - "*.generated.*"
  - proto/
commit_limit: 500                    # Max commits per file for git analysis
follow_renames: false                # Track file renames in git history
enable_onboarding: true              # Show first-run onboarding prompts

The distill: block

Controls output distillation for this repo. Everything defaults sensibly when the block is absent; repowise doctor validates it.

distill:
  enabled: true                  # master switch for this repo
  commands:
    enabled: true                # the command path (CLI + hook rewrites)
    permission: ask              # ask | allow | off — rewrite-hook posture
    families:                    # per-filter overrides
      test_output: allow         #   auto-allow rewrites for test runs
      git_diff: deny             #   never rewrite git diff here
    disabled_filters: []         # filters to skip entirely, e.g. [logs]
  omission_store:
    ttl_days: 7                  # prune stored omissions after this many days
    max_mb: 50                   # size cap; oldest entries pruned first

families keys are filter names (test_output, build_output, lint_output, git_status, git_log, git_diff, search_results, file_listing, logs) and accept ask | allow | off | deny. Declining the repowise init opt-in prompt writes commands.enabled: false, so a rewrite hook installed globally from another repo stays inert here. Under Codex, only families set to allow are rewritten — its hook protocol has no ask-with-mutation (see Distill).

The refactoring: block

Controls the refactoring-intelligence layer: the structured Extract Class / Extract Helper / Move Method / Break Cycle / Split File plans surfaced by repowise health --refactoring-targets, get_health(include=["refactoring"]), and the web Refactoring tab.

refactoring:
  enabled: true               # the deterministic plans (zero LLM, in the health pass)
  detectors:
    disabled: []              # e.g. [move_method] to silence one detector
  min_confidence: null        # low | medium | high (confidence floor; null = no floor)
  llm:
    enabled: true             # code generation, on by default; set false to disable

The deterministic layer is zero-LLM and runs in the init / update health pass. Code generation is the only part that calls a provider — it's on by default but never runs during indexing, only on an explicit request (set llm.enabled: false to disable it). enabled: false skips the whole deterministic detector pass; detectors.disabled silences named detectors while the rest keep running.

Controlling what gets indexed

repowise decides which files to document using, in order:

1. .gitignore — respected automatically, using the same gitwildmatch format git uses. repowise reads the repo-root .gitignore and nested .gitignore files in subdirectories, just like git: a .gitignore in any directory applies to that directory's contents.
2. .repowiseIgnore — same syntax as .gitignore, for repowise-only exclusions you don't want in git. Honoured at the repo root and in any subdirectory.
3. exclude_patterns / --exclude — extra patterns from the CLI, persisted to config.yaml and reapplied on every update.
4. Built-in exclusions (always applied): .git/, .repowise/, node_modules/, .venv/, dist/, build/, __pycache__/, binary files, lockfiles, and minified assets (*.min.js, *.min.css).

Add extra patterns on the command line — they're saved to config.yaml and reused by later update runs:

repowise init -x vendor/ -x "*.generated.ts" -x proto/ -x "**/*.pb.go"

Or drop a .repowiseIgnore file at the repo root or in any subdirectory for granular control without touching .gitignore:

# packages/web/.repowiseIgnore
generated/
*.stories.tsx

You can also skip categories of files with flags: --skip-tests excludes test files, and --skip-infra excludes Dockerfiles, Makefiles, and shell scripts.

Submodules

Git submodule directories are excluded by default (repowise reads .gitmodules to detect them). Include them with:

repowise init --include-submodules