syncestra 1.1.2

Sync local service directories to private git mirrors (Claude Code flagship).

syncestra

Back up developer agent state to a private GitHub mirror — using git as the transport.

syncestra syncs local service directories (Claude Code ~/.claude/ is the flagship) to a private GitHub repo, treating one git branch per service (or per service/profile). Sessions, skills, agents, commands, MCP configs, CLAUDE.md, settings, hooks, plugins, and memory all get versioned, restorable, and syncable across machines — without backing up project code.

It is not a project backup tool, a CI runner, or a secrets manager. The private repo is the security boundary; secrets ride inside it, so private visibility is mandatory and enforced.

v1 ("It Syncs") ships init, push, pull, status, restore, profile, list, watch (auto-push), and serve (MCP). Private repos only; the PAT is never logged.

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Quickstart (fastest path to first push)

# 1. Install (Python 3.11+)
pip install syncestra

# 2. Give syncestra a GitHub identity (derives the remote URL,
#    and auto-creates a private repo on first init if it doesn't exist)
export SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx                 # repo-scope PAT
cat > ~/.syncestra/config.yaml <<'EOF'
version: 1
github:
  github_username: assaad
  repo_name: syncestra
profile: personal
services:
  claude-code:
    source: "~/.claude"
EOF

# 3. Sync
syncestra init claude-code        # create local repo + remote branch
syncestra push claude-code        # dry-run by default; add --yes to commit
syncestra status claude-code      # local/remote parity

That is the whole loop: init once, then push to back up and pull/restore to recover or move to another machine. Everything below is configuration, automation, and the agent interface.

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What syncs (Claude Code flagship)

✅ Backed up	❌ Excluded
sessions, skills, agents, commands	actual project git repos (code lives elsewhere)
MCP configs, CLAUDE.md, settings.json	node_modules, caches
hooks, plugins, memory	*.log and other noise

Filtering is driven by exclude globs and .syncignore; push is the single source of truth for what reaches the remote.

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How it works (one paragraph)

Each service maps to a git branch (<service> or <service>/<profile>, e.g. claude-code/personal). The local clone is the source of truth; the GitHub repo is the replica. Convergence is last-write-wins keyed by GitHub commit time — no custom database, no profiles engine. Switching between personal and work is just changing the branch namespace. This collapses backup, sync, multi-machine parity, the work/personal split, and agent automation into one git primitive.

Three repo models are supported; one-repo-branches is the default:

• one-repo-branches — one repo, branch per service/profile
• repo-per-service — each service gets its own repo (syncestra-<service>)
• repo-per-profile — repo per profile (syncestra-personal, syncestra-work), branch per service

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CLI commands

Command	What it does	Default safety
syncestra init <service>	Create the service's local repo and remote branch	non-destructive
syncestra push <service>	Sync local dir → remote branch	dry-run; --yes to commit
syncestra pull <service>	Sync remote branch → local dir (last-write-wins)	—
syncestra status [service]	Show local/remote parity + changed files	read-only
syncestra restore <service>	Overwrite local dir from remote HEAD	destructive
syncestra profile <name>	Switch active profile (branch namespace)	—
syncestra list	List registered services	read-only
syncestra serve	Start the MCP server (stdio) for AI agents	—
syncestra watch <service>	Auto-push on file change	—

Add --json to any command for full structured output (same data, machine form). Humans get tables/colors by default; agents pass --yes for explicit intent and read --json.

Exit-code contract (frozen 0–6): agents and CI may branch on these.

Code	Meaning
0	success (incl. idempotent no-op)
1	conflict — divergent branches, LWW unsafe
2	network error — remote unreachable/timeout
3	corruption — integrity-check fail, bad object
4	auth — missing/bad/expired PAT or insufficient scope
5	config — malformed config, public-repo refusal, missing service
6	not initialized — no local state for service

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For AI agents (MCP interface)

syncestra serve boots a stdio MCP server (FastMCP) that lets an agent run every core op as a typed tool — no shell parsing. Register it with a runner that fetches the package on first spawn, so wiring the MCP is installing the tool:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "syncestra": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "syncestra", "syncestra", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_xxx",
        "SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_USERNAME": "assaad",
        "SYNCESTRA_REPO_NAME": "syncestra",
        "SYNCESTRA_SERVICES": "claude-code=~/.claude"
      }
    }
  }
}

(Identity vars derive the remote URL and auto-create a private repo on first init. An explicit SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_URL overrides identity.)

Exposed tools: syncestra_init, syncestra_status, syncestra_push, syncestra_pull, syncestra_restore, syncestra_profile, syncestra_list.

Agent contract:

• push / restore always commit — agent intent is explicit; dry-run is a CLI-only human affordance.
• Every tool returns a typed envelope {schema_version, exit_code, result: {…}} rather than raising; exit_code mirrors the frozen contract above.
• Boot preflight: serve validates the token, remote, and config before booting. A missing token, placeholder remote, or invalid config makes the server exit at spawn (code 4 auth / 5 config) with an actionable stderr message — instead of booting green and failing on every tool call. No configured services is a non-fatal warning.

---

Install

pip install syncestra          # Python 3.11+

See Releases.

Install (dev)

Requires Python 3.11+ and uv.

uv sync                # create venv + install dev deps
uv run pytest          # run tests
uv run ruff check .    # lint

---

Configure

syncestra reads one config: ~/.syncestra/config.yaml. Two ways to provide it — file, or environment (env wins per-field when both are set).

File

version: 1
remote:
  url: "https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git"
  auth: "pat"
repo_model: "one-repo-branches"      # one-repo-branches | repo-per-service | repo-per-profile
profile: "personal"                  # active profile (personal | work)

services:
  claude-code:
    source: "~/.claude"
    exclude: ["projects/*/node_modules", "*.log"]

watch:
  enabled: true              # always-on auto-sync on init (default). false = manual only.
  debounce: 3.0              # seconds to coalesce a burst of changes before pushing.
  mode: watchman             # watchman (persists across reboots) | foreground (manual)

The GitHub PAT is never in the file — export it:

export SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx      # repo-scope PAT; never logged

Derive the remote from a GitHub identity (optional)

Instead of hand-assembling remote.url, give syncestra your GitHub username and repo name and it derives the URL for you. If the repo does not exist yet, syncestra creates it as a private repo under your account on the first init/serve.

github:
  github_username: assaad
  repo_name: syncestra
  auto_create: true                  # default; set false to keep 404 a hard error

This derives remote.url = https://github.com/assaad/syncestra.git. An explicit remote.url (file) or SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_URL (env) still wins — identity only derives when no explicit URL is set. Both fields are required; a partial identity is a config error (exit 5).

Auto-create only ever calls POST /user/repos (your namespace) with private=True. If github_username does not match the token's owner, syncestra raises a config error instead of creating the repo elsewhere. If the PAT lacks the repo scope (classic PAT) or Administration: write (fine-grained), creation fails with exit 4 naming the missing scope.

Saved service presets (optional)

When you set a service up again under the same name (new machine, fresh init), its per-service backup rules would otherwise have to be re-entered by hand. Author them once as path-agnostic presets and syncestra recalls them automatically — on every Config.load, a preset overwrites the matching service's exclude/adapter while leaving the machine-specific source untouched.

services:
  claude-code:
    source: "~/.claude"              # per-machine path — different on every host
    exclude: []                      # will be overwritten by the preset below

presets:
  claude-code:
    exclude: ["projects/*/node_modules", "*.log"]
    adapter: "docker-volume"         # optional

A preset never carries source — path-agnosticism is enforced by construction (the presets.<name> block rejects a source key with a config error, exit 5). The apply is a full overwrite of exclude and adapter from the preset; omitting adapter in a preset clears any adapter the service had. A preset for a service name not yet present in services is stored but inert until you add that service — that is the "recall on next setup" behavior. Configs without a presets: block behave exactly as before.

Environment (MCP-first, no file needed)

The entire config can ride environment variables, so an MCP server block carries everything — no YAML edit required. Set vars override their file counterparts:

Env var	Overrides
SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_URL	remote.url
SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_AUTH	remote.auth (default pat)
SYNCESTRA_REPO_MODEL	repo_model
SYNCESTRA_PROFILE	profile
SYNCESTRA_SERVICES	services — name=source[,name2=source2] (replaces file)
SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_USERNAME	github.github_username (derives remote.url; both required)
SYNCESTRA_REPO_NAME	github.repo_name (derives remote.url; both required)
SYNCESTRA_AUTO_CREATE_REPO	github.auto_create (true/false; default true)
SYNCESTRA_WATCH_ENABLED	watch.enabled (true/false; default true)
SYNCESTRA_WATCH_DEBOUNCE	watch.debounce (seconds)
SYNCESTRA_WATCH_MODE	watch.mode (watchman/foreground)

When SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_URL is set and no file exists, no placeholder file is written — env is the config. Setting only one of SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_USERNAME / SYNCESTRA_REPO_NAME is a config error (exit 5); both are required to derive a URL. An explicit SYNCESTRA_REMOTE_URL wins over identity.

Identity-first MCP setup

Same MCP block as the agent section above, but using identity vars (derive URL

• auto-create on first init):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "syncestra": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "syncestra", "syncestra", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_xxx",
        "SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_USERNAME": "assaad",
        "SYNCESTRA_REPO_NAME": "syncestra",
        "SYNCESTRA_SERVICES": "claude-code=~/.claude"
      }
    }
  }
}

---

Auto-push (watch)

Keep the mirror up to date automatically as you add skills, MCP configs, or edit CLAUDE.md.

Via watchman (recommended)

syncestra watch claude-code --install            # register the trigger
syncestra watch claude-code                      # status (default action)
syncestra watch claude-code --uninstall          # remove

watchman fires syncestra watch _fire claude-code on every file change; the fire-handler debounces (default 3s, --debounce N) and runs a push. Filtering (.syncignore / classifier / exclude) is unchanged — push stays the single source of truth for what syncs.

Always-on (default on init)

init auto-installs the watchman trigger when watch.enabled is true (the default), so sync is on across reboots with no extra command. Auto-start is watchman-only and non-fatal: if watchman isn't installed, init still succeeds and prints how to install it. To opt out:

• config: watch: {enabled: false}
• env: SYNCESTRA_WATCH_ENABLED=false
• one-shot: syncestra init claude-code --no-watch

The fire handler now loops until the workdir is clean, so a change written during an in-flight push is re-pushed instead of dropped (closes the v1 gap).

Across reboots: watchman saves triggers to its statefile and reinstates them when its daemon restarts, so "always-on" holds as long as watchman runs as a managed service — the default on macOS (launchd agent) and Linux (systemd). brew install watchman / a distro package set this up for you.

Without watchman

pip install 'syncestra[watch]'    # installs watchdog
syncestra watch claude-code --foreground

Foreground mode runs an in-process watcher; same debounce, same filter.

Lost-update safety: the flock single-flight coalesces a burst into one push, and the fire handler loops until the workdir is clean — a change written while a push is already in flight is re-pushed on the next pass instead of dropped.

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Deploy to a VPS (Terraform → cloud-init → Ansible)

A fresh VPS can come up with OpenClaw, Hermes, and Claude Code installed, running, and already synced, then keep syncing on its own — with no config file on the box.

syncestra has an env-only config path: when the SYNCESTRA_* env vars are authoritative, Config.load derives the entire config (remote URL from SYNCESTRA_GITHUB_USERNAME + SYNCESTRA_REPO_NAME, the service map from SYNCESTRA_SERVICES, profile, repo model, watch settings) and writes no ~/.syncestra/config.yaml. So a deploy just sets environment variables and runs two commands per service.

Concern	How
Already synced at first boot	cloud-init runs syncestra init <svc> → syncestra pull <svc> per service before the services start
Keep syncing — outbound (VPS→repo)	init auto-installs the watchman trigger (built-in, always-on)
Keep syncing — inbound (repo→VPS)	nightly systemd timer at 04:00 Europe/London runs push then pull (both self-gating no-ops when unchanged)

pull already self-gates — it fetches, compares SHAs, and only fast-forwards when the remote is actually ahead, so "check first, pull only if changed" is the built-in behavior.

Scaffolding (cloud-init, the systemd unit + timer, an Ansible role, an env template) lives in deploy/ and works with the current release. Enable the inbound timer only for read-mostly services (e.g. claude-code) — not write-heavy state dirs (openclaw/hermes), which fast-forward would clobber.

MCP for Claude Code is opt-in, not default. Claude Code can drive syncestra over the CLI (Bash), and the sync is system-level (needs neither Claude Code nor MCP), so the deploy does not auto-register syncestra serve. To opt in:

claude mcp add syncestra -- syncestra serve

The plan to add a syncestra sync command (push-then-pull, conflict-tolerant, honors a per-service inbound: skip policy) — which the timer will call once shipped — is at docs/plans/2026-06-16-vps-default-sync-and-deploy.md.

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Status & roadmap

v1 ("It Syncs") is implemented: git engine, core ops (init/push/pull/status/ restore/profile/list), the MCP server with boot preflight, file and environment config, identity-derived remotes with auto-create, saved presets, secret scanning, and watch auto-push.

Planned for later releases: auth, diff, checkpoint, rewind, doctor, nuke, export, template, and a monitor TUI. See docs/planning-artifacts/ for architecture and epics.

License

MIT