CLI Reference¶

Complete reference for the cloninator command-line interface.

Synopsis¶

cloninator <command> [options]

Global Options¶

These options work with any command:

Option	Description
`-v, --verbose`	Increase verbosity (can be stacked)
`--version`	Print version number and exit
`-h, --help`	Show help message and exit

Verbosity Levels¶

No flag: Basic output with emoji indicators
-v: Additional progress information
-vv: Detailed debug information
-vvv: Full tracebacks on errors

Commands¶

clone¶

Clone all repositories from configuration.

cloninator clone [-v]

Description: Reads configuration and clones all defined repositories. Skips repositories that already exist.

Options:

Option	Description
`-v, --verbose`	Increase verbosity level

Exit Codes:

0: Success (all repos cloned or skipped)
1: Error (invalid config, network issues, etc.)

Examples:

# Basic usage
cloninator clone

# With verbose output
cloninator clone -v

# Maximum verbosity with tracebacks
cloninator clone -vvv

Output Indicators:

🟢 Success/progress messages
🔵 Info/skip messages
❌ Error messages

generate¶

Scan existing repositories and generate configuration.

cloninator generate [-v]

Description: Scans the configured root directory for Git repositories and generates a configuration file.

Options:

Option	Description
`-v, --verbose`	Increase verbosity level

Exit Codes:

0: Success
1: Error

Output: Creates a repos.yaml file in the current directory with discovered repositories.

Examples:

# Generate config for existing repos
cloninator generate

# With verbose output
cloninator generate -v

Notes:

Only discovers repositories under the configured /root directory
Compares against existing config to find missing repos
Output must be manually merged into main configuration
Does not capture /post_checkout commands (these must be added manually)

Configuration Files¶

Cloninator reads configuration from:

Primary: ~/.config/cloninator/config.yaml
Additional: ~/.config/cloninator/config.yaml.d/*.yaml

All YAML files are automatically merged. See Configuration Reference for details.

Environment Variables¶

Variable	Description
`HOME`	User's home directory (for config path)

Configuration paths support environment variable expansion in YAML files.

Return Values¶

All commands return standard Unix exit codes:

0: Success
1: General error
2: Invalid arguments or usage error

Examples¶

Basic Workflow¶

# Clone all configured repositories
cloninator clone

# Discover new repositories
cloninator generate

# Review generated config
cat repos.yaml

# Merge into main config, then clone again
cloninator clone

Debugging¶

# See what's happening
cloninator clone -vv

# Get full error details
cloninator clone -vvv

Version Check¶

cloninator --version

Tips¶

Use -v flag for more detailed output during troubleshooting
Run generate periodically to keep config synchronized with reality
Use split configs (config.yaml.d/) for better organization
Post-checkout commands only run during initial clone, not on subsequent runs