Aider Configuration

Professional configuration for the Aider AI coding assistant with sensible defaults for AI-assisted development workflows.

What This Skill Does

Configures Aider with GPT-4 Turbo model, automatic git commits, diff-based editing, code linting, and helpful developer features like shell command suggestions and file watching.

Configuration Details

This configuration sets up Aider with:

**Model**: GPT-4 Turbo Preview (alternatives: GPT-3.5 Turbo, Claude 3 Opus)

**Edit Format**: Diff-based editing for precise code changes

**Git Integration**: Auto-commits enabled with author attribution

**Code Quality**: Auto-linting enabled, auto-testing disabled by default

**Developer Experience**: Pretty formatting, diff display, shell command suggestions

**File Watching**: Automatic detection of file changes

**UI**: Dark mode enabled

Instructions for AI Agent

When a user requests Aider configuration, create an `.aider.conf.yaml` file in the project root with the following structure:

1. **Model Selection**

- Set primary model to `gpt-4-turbo-preview`

- Comment alternative models for easy switching

2. **Edit Format**

- Use `diff` format for precise, reviewable changes

3. **Git Settings**

- Enable `auto-commits: true` for automatic commit creation

- Enable `dirty-commits: true` to allow commits with uncommitted changes

- Enable `attribute-author: true` to attribute commits to Aider

- Disable `attribute-committer: false` to keep user as committer

4. **Code Style**

- Enable `pretty: true` for formatted output

- Enable `show-diffs: true` to display changes

5. **File Handling**

- Enable `auto-lint: true` to run linters automatically

- Disable `auto-test: false` (can be enabled per-project)

6. **Suggestions**

- Enable `suggest-shell-commands: true` for helpful CLI suggestions

7. **Watch Mode**

- Enable `watch-files: true` to monitor file changes

8. **UI Settings**

- Enable `dark-mode: true`

- Disable `light-mode: false`

Usage Example

```bash

Create configuration file

cat > .aider.conf.yaml << 'EOF'

Aider AI coding assistant configuration

https://aider.chat/docs/config.html

model: gpt-4-turbo-preview

edit-format: diff

auto-commits: true

dirty-commits: true

attribute-author: true

attribute-committer: false

pretty: true

show-diffs: true

auto-lint: true

auto-test: false

suggest-shell-commands: true

watch-files: true

dark-mode: true

light-mode: false

EOF

Start Aider (configuration is automatically loaded)

aider

```

Customization Notes

**Model**: Change to `gpt-3.5-turbo` for faster/cheaper responses or `claude-3-opus-20240229` for Claude

**Auto-test**: Enable if you have a fast test suite

**Edit Format**: Change to `whole` if you prefer full file replacements over diffs

**Commits**: Disable `auto-commits` if you prefer manual commit control

Important Constraints

This configuration assumes Aider is already installed

Git repository must be initialized for commit features

API keys for chosen model must be configured separately (via environment variables or Aider's key management)

Auto-lint requires project linters to be installed (e.g., ESLint, Pylint, Ruff)

Aider Configuration

Aider Configuration

What This Skill Does

Configuration Details

Instructions for AI Agent

Usage Example

Create configuration file

Aider AI coding assistant configuration

https://aider.chat/docs/config.html

Start Aider (configuration is automatically loaded)

Customization Notes

Important Constraints

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