Aider Configuration

This skill helps you set up and configure Aider, an AI pair programming tool, with optimal settings for your development workflow.

What This Skill Does

Configures Aider through `.aider.conf.yml` files, allowing you to customize:

Instructions

When a user asks to configure Aider or create an Aider configuration file:

1. **Identify Configuration Location**

- Ask whether the config should be global (`~/.aider.conf.yml`) or project-specific (git repo root)

- Default to project-specific unless user specifies otherwise

2. **Determine Key Settings**

- Ask about preferred AI model if not specified (sonnet, opus, gpt-4o, etc.)

- Confirm git integration preferences:

- Auto-commits (default: false for manual control)

- Dirty commits (default: true)

- Commit message attribution

- Ask about terminal theme (dark-mode vs light-mode)

- Determine if lint/test automation is desired

3. **Create Configuration File**

- Use the reference content provided as a template

- Only include non-default settings to keep config clean

- Add comments explaining important choices

- Common settings to configure:

- `model`: Primary AI model

- `auto-commits`: false (safer default)

- `dark-mode` or `light-mode`: based on user preference

- `auto-lint`: true (if linting is set up)

- `auto-test`: false (manual testing usually preferred)

- `map-tokens`: repo map size (0 to disable)

- `fancy-input`: true (better UX)

4. **Handle API Keys**

- Remind user that API keys should go in `.env` file, not YAML config

- Only OpenAI and Anthropic keys can be in YAML (but .env is still preferred)

- Reference: https://aider.chat/docs/config/dotenv.html

5. **Validate and Test**

- After creating config, suggest running `aider --check-update` to verify

- Recommend adding `.aider*` files to `.gitignore` (Aider does this automatically if `gitignore: true`)

Example Usage

**User:** "Set up Aider for my project"

**Response:**

1. Create `.aider.conf.yml` in git root

2. Configure with:

- `sonnet: true` (Claude 3.5 Sonnet)

- `auto-commits: false` (manual commit control)

- `dark-mode: true`

- `auto-lint: true`

- `map-tokens: 1024` (moderate repo mapping)

3. Remind about `.env` for API keys

4. Add `.aider*` to `.gitignore`

Important Notes

Configuration File Location Priority

Aider searches for config in this order:

1. File specified by `--config` flag

2. `.aider.conf.yml` in current directory

3. `.aider.conf.yml` in git repository root

4. `.aider.conf.yml` in home directory

Common Workflows

**Minimal Config (Sonnet + Dark Mode):**

```yaml

sonnet: true

dark-mode: true

auto-commits: false

```

**Full Control (Manual Everything):**

```yaml

model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

auto-commits: false

auto-lint: false

auto-test: false

dark-mode: true

```

**Automated Workflow:**

```yaml

sonnet: true

auto-commits: true

auto-lint: true

auto-test: true

lint-cmd:

- "python: ruff check --fix"

test-cmd: pytest

```