Aider Configuration Template

A production-ready Aider configuration file that showcases advanced model routing, visual customization, and workflow optimizations.

What This Skill Does

This configuration template demonstrates how to set up Aider with:

Multi-model support using OpenRouter (Gemini, DeepSeek)

Custom color schemes for dark mode terminals

Architect edit format for complex changes

Optimized caching, streaming, and git integration

Repository mapping and history management

Configuration Highlights

**Model Strategy:**

Main model: Gemini 2.5 Pro (free tier via OpenRouter)

Weak model: Gemini 2.0 Flash (for commits/summaries)

Editor model: DeepSeek Chat v3 (for inline edits)

**Visual Customization:**

Dark mode with Monokai code theme

Custom colors for user input (#00cc00), assistant output (#0088ff)

Streaming enabled for real-time responses

**Workflow Features:**

Architect edit format for better code organization

Auto-linting enabled (auto-testing disabled)

Git integration with author attribution

Repo map with 1024 token limit

Instructions

1. **Copy this configuration to your home directory or git repo root:**

```bash

cp .aider.conf.yml ~/.aider.conf.yml

# OR place at the root of your project

```

2. **Customize the models to your needs:**

- Uncomment alternative model options (Opus, Sonnet, GPT-4, Ollama, etc.)

- Adjust `model`, `weak-model`, and `editor-model` based on your API access

- Free OpenRouter models are used by default to minimize costs

3. **Set API keys:**

- For OpenAI/Anthropic: add keys directly to the config file

- For other providers: create a `.env` file in your git root:

```

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_key_here

```

4. **Adjust visual settings:**

- Toggle `dark-mode` / `light-mode` based on your terminal

- Change `code-theme` (options: default, monokai, solarized-dark, solarized-light)

- Customize colors using hex codes (e.g., `user-input-color: #00cc00`)

5. **Enable optional features:**

- Set `show-diffs: true` to see changes before commits

- Set `auto-test: true` and add `test-cmd` for automatic testing

- Set `watch-files: true` to monitor files for AI coding comments

6. **Add model metadata (optional):**

- Create `~/.aider.model.settings.yml` for custom model configurations

- See Aider docs for schema: https://aider.chat/docs/config/model-settings.html

7. **Launch Aider:**

```bash

aider

# Configuration is automatically loaded from ~/.aider.conf.yml or repo root

```

Key Configuration Options Explained

**`architect: true`** - Uses architect edit format, better for large changes across multiple files

**`stream: true`** - Shows LLM responses in real-time (feels faster)

**`map-tokens: 1024`** - Repo map size (set to 0 to disable, increase for larger context)

**`auto-commits: true`** - Automatically commits LLM changes (disable if you prefer manual control)

**`auto-lint: true`** - Runs linters after changes (configure with `lint-cmd`)

**`cache-prompts: false`** - Enable to reduce API costs on supported models (Anthropic)

Notes

This configuration is from andrewjamesford's dotfiles setup

All configuration entries are documented in the file with comments

Uncomment and modify options as needed for your workflow

Use `aider --help` to see all available options

Refer to https://aider.chat/docs/config/ for detailed documentation

Example Workflow

```bash

Start aider with files to edit

aider src/main.py tests/test_main.py

Use architect mode for complex refactoring

/architect Refactor the UserService class to use dependency injection

Run tests after changes

/test

Commit with auto-generated message

/commit

```

Aider Configuration Template

Aider Configuration Template

What This Skill Does

Configuration Highlights

Instructions

Key Configuration Options Explained

Notes

Example Workflow

Start aider with files to edit

Use architect mode for complex refactoring

Run tests after changes

Commit with auto-generated message

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