Dotlore

Sync your AI stuff and keep it away from your main codebase.

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Note

macOS is the current priority. Windows and Linux are coming soon.

Dotlore syncs the AI-agent config your projects git-ignore (.claude/, CLAUDE.md, .agents/, docs/, ~/.claude) between your own Macs. Files stay where they are: nothing is moved, symlinked, or added to your project's git history.

✨ Features

• Files stay put — never moved, never symlinked, never added to git history.
• Project folders — each project is a folder with an include-list of entries to sync.
• Cloud folder, not a cloud API — sync through any folder your cloud app keeps in sync: iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, MEGA, …
• Immutable bundles — each Mac publishes its own git bundle; nothing in the cloud is rewritten.
• Conflicts without markers — the newer commit wins; the other version is kept as a sibling file.
• Desktop + menu bar — a three-column window and a compact status item.

🔄 How it works

Each project gets a private staging git repo under ~/Library/Application Support/dotlore/. Dotlore copies the include-list into it, commits, and publishes an immutable git bundle to its own device folder in the cloud:

<cloud>/dotlore/<slug>/devices/<device-id>/000001.bundle

Other devices fetch and merge those bundles with the system git. On overlapping edits the newer commit wins everywhere, and the other version is saved as <stem>.conflict-<device>-<blob>.<ext>. Nothing is lost and all devices converge.

☁️ Cloud folders

Dotlore only needs a folder that a cloud app syncs to every Mac; it never talks to the cloud service itself.

• Listed automatically — iCloud Drive, and every account mounted under ~/Library/CloudStorage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Proton Drive, …).
• Any other folder — pick it with "Other…", e.g. a MEGA sync folder or a legacy ~/Dropbox.
• Requirements — the folder must support hard links; FUSE-style drives such as pCloud Drive may refuse to publish, and Dotlore shows the error.
• Upload status — the footer's "Synced to cloud" is iCloud-only; other folders show "Synced".

🛠️ Tech stack

Layer	Technology
Engine	Rust in src-tauri/, driving the system git
App	Tauri 2; React 19 + TypeScript + Vite in src/
UI	Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui
Editor	CodeMirror 6 (@codemirror/merge for conflicts)

🚀 Development

Prerequisites: Rust 1.89+, Node.js 20+, pnpm, git, and the Tauri prerequisites for macOS.

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev          # desktop app
pnpm mockapp:dev        # browser UI with a mocked backend — http://localhost:38422
pnpm test
pnpm format:check

Tip

pnpm tauri dev stores its state in ~/Downloads/dotlore-dev (override with DOTLORE_HOME), so it can run beside an installed copy. That also gives it its own device identity, so point it at a separate cloud folder — see A dev run has its own state directory.

Cargo build cache

On each new Mac:

1. Create ~/.cargo/config.toml:

   [build]
   target-dir = ".cargo/shared-target"
   
   [profile.dev]
   opt-level = 1
   split-debuginfo = "off"
   
   [profile.dev.package."*"]
   debug = "line-tables-only"
   incremental = false

2. Delete any old src-tauri/target directories.

3. Run cargo install cargo-sweep, then pnpm sweep:cargo from time to time.

Why, and what each setting does: CONTRIBUTING.md.

📦 Build

export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY="$(cat ~/.tauri/dotlore.key)"
export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD="…"
pnpm build              # → src-tauri/target/release/bundle/{macos/Dotlore.app, dmg/*.dmg}

The signing key is required because the build also produces signed updater artifacts. pnpm tauri dev does not need it.

🌐 Website

The landing page at dotlore.dinhanhthi.com is static HTML in website/, deployed on every push to main.

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the invariants the engine depends on.

📄 License

MIT