Ways to sync your AI coding setup
If you use AI coding assistants on more than one computer, or more than one assistant, their instructions, skills, agents and MCP servers have to get from one place to the others somehow. There are three common ways. None is right for everyone; this page lays out what each one costs you.
At a glance
| Copying by hand | A dotfiles repository | SkillPouch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| One setup for several assistants | You rewrite each item in every assistant’s file and format. | You keep a file per assistant, or write scripts that generate them. | Write it once; each assistant gets its own format and folder, including agents, commands and MCP config. |
| Setting up a new computer | Copy every file again. | Clone the repository and run your install or link script. | npm i -g skillpouch, skillpouch login, pick a pouch. |
| Staying in sync | Whenever you remember. | Commit, push and pull on each computer, or automate it yourself. | A background sync on each computer, within moments while online. |
| Two computers change the same item | The last copy wins. | A git merge, with conflict markers to fix by hand. | Marked as a conflict; you pick the version to keep in the web app. |
| API keys in assistant settings | Copied in plain text. | Plain text in the repository unless you add encryption (for example git-crypt, or a dotfiles manager with encryption support). | End-to-end encrypted in your pouch, blanked out of share links. Credential files are never synced. |
| History | None. | Full git history of every change. | Deleted items stay in a trash for 7 days, and files it replaces are backed up first; no browsable version history. |
| What it covers | Anything. | Any file you put in the repository, not only AI tools. | AI coding assistants’ user-level setup in your home folder. |
| Accounts and hosting | None. | A git host of your choice. | A SkillPouch account on skillpouch.net, or your own server. |
Copying by hand
Fine for one assistant on two computers. It stops working when the same instructions must exist as CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and GEMINI.md, or when an MCP server has to be added to a different JSON or TOML file for each assistant. Copies drift apart, and a new computer starts from nothing.
A dotfiles repository
Many developers already keep their shell and editor config in git, and AI assistant config can live there too. You get full history, review of every change, and control over exactly which files are included. You also own the work: keeping one file per assistant (or a script that generates them), committing and pulling on each computer, resolving merges, and keeping API keys out of the repository or encrypting them.
SkillPouch
SkillPouch is built for this one job. It finds the assistants on each computer, keeps one copy of your setup in a pouch, and writes it into every assistant in its own format. Sync runs in the background, conflicts are shown instead of merged blindly, and everything is encrypted on your devices before upload. The trade-offs: it needs an account (or your own server), it covers AI assistants rather than all your dotfiles, and it has no browsable version history.
Using both
They work together. If an assistant's folder is part of a git checkout, such as a dotfiles repository, SkillPouch only reads it and never writes there, so the checkout stays clean. Instructions that belong to one project, like an AGENTS.md at the root of a repository, are already shared by that repository's git; SkillPouch is for the user-level setup in your home folder. See Folders in a git checkout.