Reconcile

reconcile controls how gh-infra manages each file entry in the target repository. There are three modes:

Mode	Creates	Updates	Deletes orphans
patch (default)	Yes	Yes	No
mirror	Yes	Yes	Yes
create_only	Yes	No	No

patch (default)

Manages the declared files without touching anything else in the target directory.

files:
  - path: .github/CODEOWNERS
    content: "* @platform-team"
    # reconcile: patch  ← default, can be omitted

What happens:

• File doesn’t exist → created
• File exists, content matches → no action
• File exists, content differs → overwritten with the declared content

Use this for config files, security policies, or any file where you want gh-infra to keep it up to date but leave other files in the same directory alone.

mirror

Makes the target directory an exact copy of the source. Any file in the target that is not in the source is deleted.

files:
  - path: .github/workflows
    source: ./templates/workflows/
    reconcile: mirror

What happens:

• File in source, not in target → created
• File in source, content differs → overwritten
• File in target, not in source → deleted
• File in source, content matches → no action

Mirror only affects the directory specified by path. Files outside that directory are never touched:

files:
  - path: .github/workflows
    source: ./templates/workflows/
    reconcile: mirror
    # ↑ only deletes orphans inside .github/workflows/

  - path: README.md
    content: "# My Project"
    # ↑ unaffected by the mirror above

Example: source has ci.yml and release.yml. Target repo also has repo-dedicated.yml:

• Directory.github/workflows/ (after apply)

  • ci.yml ← synced
  • release.yml ← synced
  • repo-dedicated.yml ← deleted

create_only

Creates the file once. If it already exists, gh-infra ignores it completely — no update, no comparison.

files:
  - path: VERSION
    content: "0.1.0"
    reconcile: create_only

What happens:

• File doesn’t exist → created
• File exists (any content) → no action

Use this for seed files that repositories manage independently after creation: VERSION, README.md, .env.example, etc.

Mixing modes

Different files can use different modes in the same manifest:

files:
  - path: .github/workflows
    source: ./templates/workflows/
    reconcile: mirror

  - path: .github/CODEOWNERS
    content: "* @platform-team"
    # reconcile: patch (default)

  - path: README.md
    source: ./templates/README.md.tmpl
    reconcile: create_only