devrefs

Clone & update reference repos for AI coding agents.

Pulls open-source repos into .devrefs/references/<owner>/<repo>/ so agents can read real source as ground truth (instead of guessing APIs or relying on training data). Config lives in .devrefs/devrefs.yml.

Install

npm install -g devrefs  # npm
bun install -g devrefs  # or bun
cargo binstall devrefs  # or cargo-binstall (prebuilt binary, faster)
cargo install devrefs   # or cargo (build from source)
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Blankeos/devrefs/main/install.sh | sh # or linux/macos (via curl)

Usage

devrefs                                  # print help
devrefs add blankeos/solid-launch "..."  # add + clone
devrefs list                             # list configured refs
devrefs list --outdated                  # show refs whose remote is ahead
devrefs pull                             # clone-if-missing + pull all
devrefs pull blankeos/solid-launch       # pull just one
devrefs remove blankeos/solid-launch     # delete from yml + disk

How it works

• Stores data in .devrefs/devrefs.yml (tracked in git).
• Clones into .devrefs/references/<owner>/<repo>/ (gitignored).
• Patches .gitignore, tsconfig.json (exclude), biome.json (files.includes), .prettierignore, .eslintignore to keep references out of your build / lint / format pipelines.
• Shallow clones (--depth 1) — references are for reading current source, not history.

Credits

Inspired by better-context by Ben Davis — I wanted to make a simpler version of btca. No webapps, webviews, no agents. devrefs is just a purely minimal CLI, usable-by-agents, frictionless version of that idea.

License

MIT