Aider Configuration File

This skill provides a complete Aider configuration template that can be customized for your AI-assisted coding workflow. Aider is an AI pair programming tool that works in your terminal.

What This Does

Creates a properly formatted `.aider.conf.yml` configuration file with settings for:

Instructions

When a user requests an Aider configuration file, follow these steps:

1. **Determine the configuration location** by asking the user:

- `~/.aider.conf.yml` for global configuration (all projects)

- `.aider.conf.yml` at the repository root for project-specific settings

- Or a custom path they specify with `--config-file`

2. **Ask about their preferences** for key settings:

- Which AI model to use (gpt-4, claude-3-opus, claude-sonnet-3-5, etc.)

- Whether to enable auto-commits (true/false)

- Preferred editor (code, vim, emacs, etc.)

- File extensions to auto-edit

- UI preferences (dark mode, show diffs)

3. **Create the configuration file** with this template structure:

```yaml

Aider configuration file

Model settings

model: gpt-4

max_tokens: 4096

temperature: 0.0

Git settings

auto_commits: true

auto_commit_message: "AI: {{summary}}"

user_input_mode: never

Editor settings

editor: code

auto_edit_file_extensions: .py .js .jsx .ts .tsx .html .css .md .txt

use_system_editor: false

UI settings

dark_mode: true

pretty: true

show_diffs: true

Misc settings

verbose: false

save_edits: false

stream: true

```

4. **Customize based on user responses**:

- Update `model` field with their chosen model

- Set `auto_commits` based on their git workflow preference

- Configure `editor` with their preferred code editor

- Adjust `auto_edit_file_extensions` for their tech stack

- Set `dark_mode` and `show_diffs` per their UI preference

- Enable `verbose` if they want detailed logging

5. **Explain key configuration options**:

- **model**: The AI model to use (gpt-4, claude-3-opus, etc.)

- **max_tokens**: Maximum tokens per request (controls response length)

- **temperature**: Creativity level (0.0 = deterministic, 1.0 = creative)

- **auto_commits**: Whether Aider automatically commits changes to git

- **auto_commit_message**: Template for commit messages ({{summary}} is replaced)

- **user_input_mode**: When to ask for user input (never, always, confirm)

- **editor**: Which editor to open files in

- **auto_edit_file_extensions**: File types Aider can automatically edit

- **dark_mode**: Use dark theme in the terminal UI

- **show_diffs**: Display diffs of changes before applying

- **stream**: Stream AI responses token-by-token

- **verbose**: Show detailed debug information

6. **Write the file** to the specified location using the Write tool.

7. **Provide usage instructions**:

- "Your Aider configuration has been created at `[path]`"

- "Start Aider in your project directory with: `aider`"

- "Aider will automatically load this configuration"

- "You can override any setting with command-line flags, e.g., `aider --model claude-3-opus`"

Configuration Examples

For Python Projects

```yaml

model: gpt-4

auto_edit_file_extensions: .py .ipynb .txt .md .yml .yaml .toml

editor: code

```

For Web Development

```yaml

model: claude-sonnet-3-5

auto_edit_file_extensions: .js .jsx .ts .tsx .html .css .scss .json .md

editor: code

dark_mode: true

```

For Conservative Git Workflow

```yaml

model: gpt-4

auto_commits: false

user_input_mode: confirm

show_diffs: true

```

Important Notes

Constraints