Aider Configuration for Haskell Commenting System

A battle-tested Aider configuration from a real-world Haskell backend project with TypeScript frontend. This setup enables AI-assisted coding with automatic testing, linting, and intelligent file watching.

What This Configuration Does

This configuration sets up Aider to work seamlessly with a polyglot codebase:

Configuration Instructions

1. **Create `.aider.conf.yml` in your project root** with the following configuration:

```yaml

Main model configuration

model: gemini

thinking-tokens: "1024"

Enable caching for faster responses

cache-prompts: true

Terminal appearance

dark-mode: true

pretty: true

stream: true

vim: true

Git integration

gitignore: false

watch-files: true

Testing and linting

test-cmd: env -C api just lint && env -C spa yarn lint

auto-test: true

auto-lint: true

Read documentation for context

read:

- AGENTS.md

- GEMINI.md

Editor preference

editor: nvim

Updates

check-update: true

```

2. **Customize the test command** for your project structure:

- Replace `env -C api just lint && env -C spa yarn lint` with your test/lint commands

- Example for single directory: `test-cmd: npm test && npm run lint`

- Example for Python: `test-cmd: pytest && flake8`

3. **Add context documentation files** to the `read` section:

- Include README, architecture docs, or style guides

- These files provide context to the AI without adding them to the edit scope

- Example: `read: [README.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, STYLE_GUIDE.md]`

4. **Configure lint commands** for your languages (optional):

```yaml

lint-cmd:

- "haskell: hlint"

- "typescript: eslint"

- "python: flake8 --select=E,W"

```

5. **Set up API keys** in your `.env` file (not in YAML):

```bash

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_key_here

```

Key Features Explained

**File Watching (`watch-files: true`)**

**Automatic Testing (`auto-test: true`)**

**Prompt Caching (`cache-prompts: true`)**

**Thinking Tokens (`thinking-tokens: "1024"`)**

**Read-Only Context Files**

Usage Examples

**Start Aider with configuration auto-loaded:**

```bash

aider

```

**Override model for specific session:**

```bash

aider --model claude-opus-4

```

**Add files to edit scope:**

```bash

aider src/main.hs src/api.ts

```

**One-shot edit and exit:**

```bash

aider --message "Add error handling to parseComment function" src/parser.hs

```

**Lint and fix all dirty files:**

```bash

aider --lint

```

Important Notes

Constraints

Advanced Customization

**Multi-line input mode:**

```yaml

multiline: true # Submit with Meta-Enter instead of Enter

```

**Custom notification command:**

```yaml

notifications: true

notifications-command: "osascript -e 'display notification \"Aider ready\"'"

```

**Subtree-only mode for monorepos:**

```yaml

subtree-only: true # Only consider files in current directory tree

```

**Custom map tokens for large repos:**

```yaml

map-tokens: 4096 # Increase for better context in large codebases

```