Aider PowerShell Configuration

A production-ready Aider configuration file optimized for PowerShell development workflows. This configuration emphasizes cost efficiency, automatic code quality checks, and seamless integration with PowerShell tooling.

What This Skill Does

Generates a `.aider.conf.yml` configuration file that:

Instructions

When a user requests an Aider configuration for PowerShell projects, follow these steps:

1. **Confirm the target location** - Ask if the configuration should be placed in the project root or `.aider/` subdirectory (default: project root as `.aider.conf.yml`)

2. **Gather customization preferences** - Ask about:

- Preferred AI model (default: leave commented for Aider's default)

- Whether to enable auto-commits (default: false)

- Whether to enable auto-testing with Pester (default: false)

- Git integration preference (default: false)

3. **Create the configuration file** with the following structure:

```yaml

General Settings

Load environment variables from a specified file (default: .env in git root)

env-file: .aider/.env

Specify the model to use for chat and code assistance

Available models: gpt-4o, claude-3-5-sonnet, o1-preview, deepseek, etc.

model: gpt-4o

Model for editing code

editor-model: gpt-4o

Suggested number of tokens to use for repo map, use 0 to disable (default: 1024)

map-tokens: 0

Control how often the repo map is refreshed. Options: auto, always, files, manual (default: auto)

map-refresh: manual

Enable dark mode for a better terminal appearance on dark backgrounds

dark-mode: true

Enable pretty, colorized output (default: true)

pretty: true

Disable streaming responses; waits for full response before displaying

helps with estimating costs

stream: false

no-stream: true

Enable caching of prompts to reduce token costs (default: false)

cache-prompts: true

Show the differences between current and previous file versions

show-diffs: false

Disable automatic commits after changes made by the AI

auto-commits: false

Prevent the AI from suggesting shell commands during chats

no-suggest-shell-commands: true

Number of pings to keep the prompt cache alive at 5-minute intervals (default: 0)

cache-keepalive-pings: 5

Add aider-specific files to .gitignore (default: true)

gitignore: false

Automatically lints code after changes using PSScriptAnalyzer (PowerShell linting)

auto-lint: true

map

show-repo-map: false

Command to lint PowerShell code using PSScriptAnalyzer

lint-cmd: "pwsh -Command Invoke-ScriptAnalyzer -Path *.ps1"

Automatically runs tests after code changes using Pester

auto-test: false

Command to run PowerShell tests using Pester

#test-cmd: "pwsh -Command Invoke-Pester -Path .\\Tests"

Control verbosity of the output (default: false)

verbose: false

Specify the input history file

input-history-file: .aider/aider.input.history

Specify the chat history file

chat-history-file: .aider/aider.chat.history.md

Specify the LLM history file

llm-history-file: .aider/aider.llm.history

Specify model-specific settings

model-settings-file: .aider/aider.model.settings.yml

model-metadata-file: .aider/aider.model.metadata.json

Completion and Suggestions

Disable completion suggestions for shell commands

suggest-shell-commands: false

Git Integration

Enable Git integration to track file changes

git: false

edit the whole file

edit-format: whole

yesss

yes-always: true

show-prompts: false

```

4. **Create the .aider directory structure** - Ensure `.aider/` subdirectory exists for history and settings files

5. **Provide setup instructions** to the user:

- Copy the `.aider.conf.yml` file to the project root

- Create `.aider/.env` file for environment variables (API keys, etc.)

- Ensure PSScriptAnalyzer is installed: `Install-Module -Name PSScriptAnalyzer`

- If enabling auto-test, ensure Pester is installed: `Install-Module -Name Pester`

- Uncomment and set the `model` field to specify an AI model

- Adjust `auto-test` and `test-cmd` if Pester tests are available

Key Configuration Highlights

**Cost Optimization:**

**PowerShell Integration:**

**Developer Experience:**

**History Management:**

Constraints

Example Usage

**Basic setup:**

```

User: "Set up Aider for my PowerShell project"

Assistant: [Creates .aider.conf.yml with default settings]

```

**Custom model:**

```

User: "Configure Aider with Claude Sonnet for PowerShell development"

Assistant: [Creates config with model: claude-3-5-sonnet uncommented]

```

**Enable testing:**

```

User: "Add Aider config with automatic Pester tests"

Assistant: [Creates config with auto-test: true and test-cmd uncommented]

```