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Repositories Registry

Most repositories in Ever Works arrive attached to a Work: the data repo, the markdown repo, the website repo. The Repositories registry is for everything else — the API service your Agent needs to read to write a release note, the design-system repo it copies tokens from, the private tooling repo it runs a script out of.

A registry entry is an account-level record of a repository, independent of Works: a URL, a display name, a mount directory, a credential pointer, and up to eight seed .env files. Once a repository is in the registry you can grant a specific Agent access to it — the same way you grant Skills or MCP connections.

Where to find it

Settings → Repositories (/settings/repositories), directly below GitHub App in the settings sidebar.

The list is a single table of every repository connection on your account, including the ones derived from your Works.

What the registry holds​

Three kinds of row share one table, told apart by the Source badge:

Source badgeWhere it comes fromEditable
ManualYou filled in the Add Repo form.Yes — Edit and Delete actions.
GitHub AppImported in one click from a repository your Ever Works GitHub App installation can see.Yes — a real row, same as a manual one.
WorkComputed from the repositories a Work already declares.No — read-only, with no row actions offered.

Only the first two are stored rows. Work-derived entries are computed on every read and never copied into the registry table, so renaming or re-importing a Work can never leave a stale duplicate behind.

Fields on an entry​

FieldForm labelRules
nameNameRequired, ≤ 120 characters, unique across your registry. Also the default mount directory.
urlRepository URLRequired, ≤ 512 characters. An https:// URL or an SSH remote (git@host:owner/repo or ssh://host/path).
provider—github (default) or plain git.
defaultBranchDefault BranchOptional, ≤ 120 characters — for example main.
mountPathMount PathOptional. One directory segment matching ^[A-Za-z0-9._-]{1,200}$; the form shows the resulting /workspace/….
descriptionDescriptionOptional, ≤ 2000 characters.
credentialModeCredential Keyinherit, github-app or secret-ref — see Credential keys below.
credentialRef(second field under the above)A pointer, ≤ 200 characters. Never a raw token.
envFilesEnvironment tab≤ 8 files, each ≤ 32 KB. Encrypted at rest, masked in API responses.
availableInAllProjectsAvailable in all projectsOn by default — a declaration that the repository is offered everywhere without an explicit attachment.
sourceTypeSource columnmanual, github-app or work.
enabled—Row-level kill switch, on by default; settable through the API. A disabled row resolves for nobody.

The Mount Path rule is deliberately strict: the effective mount directory is always a single traversal-free segment, so an entry can never escape /workspace/<dir>. If you leave it empty, the display name is sanitized into a segment instead (spaces and separators collapse to -).

Repositories derived from your Works​

Every Work can declare three repositories, and each one that exists shows up in the registry listing as a read-only entry named <Work name> (<role>):

RoleWhat it holds
workThe Work's main repository ({slug}, the generated markdown content).
websiteThe generated site.
dataThe content repository — items, categories, tags, YAML.

These rows carry synthetic ids of the form work:<workId>:<role>, which is why they can never collide with a real row's UUID. They exist so the Repositories page answers "which repositories does my account touch at all?" in one place — the Work itself remains the place to manage them. See Git Operations for the three-repo model and Creating a Work for how they get created.

The listing endpoint only appends them when asked (?includeDerived=true); the Settings page always asks.

Credential keys — pointers, never tokens​

A registry row records where a credential lives, not the credential itself.

ModeShown ascredentialRef holdsMeaning
inheritInheritednothing — the field is clearedNo per-repository credential; the platform's normal Git credential chain applies.
github-appGitHub Appthe id of one of your GitHub App installations, picked from a selectAn installation access token is minted on demand for that installation.
secret-refSecret referencea pointer such as env:MY_REPO_TOKEN or plugin:githubResolved through the secret-store resolver, so the value never lives in the repository row.

Switching Credential Key back to Inherited clears the stored pointer rather than leaving a stale one behind — the form sends an explicit null, which the API reads as "clear this", as opposed to omitting the field, which means "leave it alone".

The inherited chain is the same one every Git operation uses: an explicitly supplied token, then the platform token for Ever Works Git-hosted Works, then a GitHub App installation token linked to the Work, then your connected provider account, then a plugin-level PAT — failing with a "no credentials" error if none of those answer. Git Operations documents it in full.

Environment files (masked by default)​

Each entry can carry up to eight seed .env files — the environment a repository needs before anything can run inside it.

The masking rule is enforced in the API, not just in the UI:

  • GET /api/repo-connections and GET /api/repo-connections/:id return each env file as path plus byte size only. Contents are never in a list or get response.
  • Contents leave the API through exactly one endpoint: GET /api/repo-connections/:id/env-files, which is owner-gated and returns the full set.
  • PUT /api/repo-connections/:id/env-files replaces the whole set — "Save All" semantics. A file you removed from the editor is deleted, not merged away.
  • At rest the whole map is stored in an envelope-encrypted column.

In the Environment tab of the repository form this shows up as N env file(s) stored. Contents are hidden until revealed. next to a Reveal button; nothing is fetched until you click it. On a brand-new repository the editor is open immediately, and the files are saved together with the row.

Validation happens in both the DTO and the service:

RuleLimit
Files per repository8 (the Add .env file button disables at eight)
Content size per file32 KB of UTF-8
Path shapeRelative, may nest (apps/api/.env); each segment [A-Za-z0-9._-], no / prefix, no \
Forbidden path segments. and .. — traversal is rejected outright
DuplicatesRejected with the offending path named in the error
Secrets belong in a store, not in a repository row

Seed env files are convenient for non-secret configuration and for values you would otherwise paste by hand every run. For anything genuinely sensitive, prefer a secret-ref credential pointer or plugin settings — see API Keys and Plugins.

Binding repositories to Agents​

A registry entry does nothing on its own. Access is granted per Agent, on either of two surfaces over the same endpoints:

  • Agent → Capabilities → Repositories (/agents/:id/capabilities) — the consolidated "what can this Agent do" view, alongside tools, Skills, MCP connections, Environment and the init script. See Agent Capabilities.
  • Agent → Settings → Repositories card (/agents/:id/settings) — the same list with an attach switch per row and a Manage repositories link back to the registry.
EndpointWhat it does
GET /api/agents/:agentId/reposEvery registry row plus this Agent's attached / enabled state.
PUT /api/agents/:agentId/repos/:repoConnectionIdAttach the repository, or flip the attachment's enabled flag.
DELETE /api/agents/:agentId/repos/:repoConnectionIdDetach it.

Two rules are worth knowing:

  • Both flags must be on. A repository resolves for an Agent only when the attachment is enabled and the registry row itself is enabled. Disabling the row switches it off for every Agent at once without losing a single attachment.
  • Deleting a registry row detaches every Agent. The edge rows cascade with it, so there is never a dangling grant.

Ownership is checked on both sides: the Agent and the repository must belong to you, and anything else reads as a 404 rather than a 403 — the API never confirms that someone else's row exists.

Status: attachments are recorded; mounting is coming soon

Be precise about what an attachment does today:

  • Attaching records a durable grant. The edge row between Agent and repository is stored, audited in Activity, and returned by GET /api/agents/:agentId/repos. That part is fully live.
  • A Task's provision spec carries the grant as advice. When a Task provisions an isolated workspace, the run Agent's enabled attachments ride the provision spec as an advisory attachedRepos list — and the v1 sandbox and local workspace providers ignore it. It rides the spec so that future multi-mount executors need no contract change.
  • The managed-session runtime already has the mounting code. It knows how to turn an attachedRepos entry into a mounted github_repository resource and to place that repository's env files under /workspace/<mount dir>. What is missing is the wiring in between: no orchestrator passes the resolved list into a pipeline run, so that code never sees an attached repository.

The honest summary: no executor checks out an attached repository yet. Multi-repo mounting is coming soon; until it lands, treat an attachment as a durable, auditable grant that mounting will honor once it ships — not as a guarantee that the repository is on disk during a run. Task Isolation covers what a Task workspace does provision today.

GitHub App: Import and Onboard are different actions​

Both start from a repository your Ever Works GitHub App installation can see, and they do genuinely different things.

ActionWhereResult
ImportSettings → Repositories → Import from GitHub App panel → ImportA new registry row your Agents can be attached to. No Work is created.
OnboardSettings → GitHub App → the repository's row → OnboardThe repository is analyzed and, if it is a data repository, linked as a new Work.

Import calls POST /api/repo-connections/import/github-app/:installationRepoId and creates a real row with:

  • name = the repository's short name, url = https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>, defaultBranch copied from the installation snapshot,
  • credentialMode: github-app and credentialRef set to the installation's id, so tokens can be minted through the App,
  • sourceType: github-app and sourceInstallationRepoId recorded — which is how the import panel hides repositories you have already imported.

Conflicts are loud rather than silently renamed:

  • already imported → 409 naming the row it landed in,
  • a different row already uses that name → 409 asking you to rename the existing row and import again.

Onboard is the Work path: it analyzes the repository through the installation token and refuses anything that is not a data repository ("Only existing data repositories can be onboarded from GitHub App installations right now"). What it produces is a linked Work, exactly like the link existing import mode. See Work Import and .works/works.yml Configuration — a repository that carries .works/works.yml arrives with its name and generation settings already filled in.

Once a data repository is onboarded as a Work, edits pushed to it can flow to the Work's main repository through data-repo instant sync, driven by the same GitHub App's push webhook (with a polling fallback when the App is not installed). That path is documented in Data Management.

How to: register a repository manually​

  1. Go to Settings → Repositories (/settings/repositories) and click Add Repo.
  2. On the General tab, fill in Repository URL — https://github.com/acme/my-service, or an SSH remote if that is how you clone it.
  3. Give it a Name. It must be unique in your registry, and it becomes the mount directory unless you override it.
  4. Optionally set Mount Path (the hint under the field shows exactly where it lands, e.g. Mounted at /workspace/my-service) and Default Branch.
  5. Pick a Credential Key: leave Inherited to use your normal Git credentials, choose GitHub App and select an installation, or choose Secret reference and enter a pointer such as env:MY_REPO_TOKEN.
  6. Switch to the Environment tab if the repository needs seed .env files, click Add .env file, enter a path (.env) and its contents, and repeat for up to eight files.
  7. Click Save. The row appears in the table with a Manual badge; env files created alongside a new repository are saved with it.

The same thing over the API:

curl -X POST https://api.ever.works/api/repo-connections \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-service",
    "url": "https://github.com/acme/my-service",
    "defaultBranch": "main",
    "mountPath": "my-service",
    "credentialMode": "secret-ref",
    "credentialRef": "env:MY_REPO_TOKEN",
    "envFiles": [{ "path": ".env", "content": "LOG_LEVEL=debug\n" }]
  }'

How to: import a repository from a GitHub App installation​

  1. Install the Ever Works GitHub App on the account or organization that owns the repository and complete the setup redirect. Settings → GitHub App then lists the installation.
  2. If the repository is missing from the installation's list, click Sync on that installation to refresh the stored snapshot from GitHub.
  3. Go to Settings → Repositories. The Import from GitHub App panel lists every installation repository that is not already in your registry.
  4. Click Import next to the repository. It appears in the table with a GitHub App badge and its Credential column reading GitHub App.
  5. Open Edit on the new row if you want to set a Mount Path, a description, or seed env files — imports land with sensible defaults, not with your preferences.
curl -X POST \
  https://api.ever.works/api/repo-connections/import/github-app/<installationRepoId> \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERWORKS_API_KEY"

How to: give one Agent access to one repository​

  1. Register or import the repository as above.
  2. Open Sidebar → Teams → Agents, pick the Agent, and open its Capabilities tab (/agents/:id/capabilities).
  3. Scroll to Repositories and switch the row on. (The Repositories card on the Agent's Settings tab does the same thing.)
  4. Confirm the Agent may actually act there: canCommitToRepo and canOpenPullRequests live on the Agent's Settings tab, and what lands where is still governed by the Merge Policy.
  5. To pause access without losing the configuration, switch the row off again — or disable the registry row itself to cut every Agent off at once.
curl -X PUT \
  https://api.ever.works/api/agents/<agent-uuid>/repos/<repo-connection-uuid> \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "enabled": true }'

API reference​

MethodPathPurposeRate limit
GET/api/repo-connections?includeDerived=trueList the registry; includeDerived appends Work-derived rows.—
POST/api/repo-connectionsCreate an entry.60 / min
GET/api/repo-connections/:idRead one entry (env files masked).—
PATCH/api/repo-connections/:idPartial update; null clears a field, omission keeps it.120 / min
DELETE/api/repo-connections/:idDelete the entry and detach every Agent.60 / min
GET/api/repo-connections/:id/env-filesReveal full env-file contents (owner only).60 / min
PUT/api/repo-connections/:id/env-filesReplace the env-file set ("Save All").60 / min
POST/api/repo-connections/import/github-app/:installationRepoIdOne-click import from a GitHub App installation.60 / min
GET/api/agents/:agentId/reposRegistry rows with an Agent's attachment state.—
PUT/api/agents/:agentId/repos/:repoConnectionIdAttach, or set the attachment's enabled flag.120 / min
DELETE/api/agents/:agentId/repos/:repoConnectionIdDetach.120 / min

Every endpoint is scoped to the calling account. A row owned by someone else reads as 404, never 403.

What lands in Activity​

Registry changes are recorded in the Activity log, so a repository appearing in a run is always traceable:

repo_connection_created · repo_connection_updated · repo_connection_deleted · repo_connection_imported · repo_attached_to_agent · repo_detached_from_agent

Activity writes are best-effort by design — a feed hiccup never fails a registry change that already happened, and the rows carry display names and ids, never credential material.

Troubleshooting​

SymptomCauseFix
409 — "already in your registry as …" on importThat installation repository has been imported before.Use the existing row; the import panel hides it once you reload.
409 — "A repository named … already exists"Registry names are unique per account, and the import uses the repository's name.Rename the existing row (Edit → Name), then import again.
400 — "Mount path must be a single directory name"You entered a path with /, spaces or ...Use one segment: my-service.
400 — "Invalid env file path"Absolute path, a backslash, or a . / .. segment.Use a relative path such as .env or apps/api/.env.
Env-file boxes are empty when you open EnvironmentCorrect — contents are masked until you ask for them.Click Reveal.
An env file you deleted in the editor is gone after Save AllPUT …/env-files replaces the whole set.Re-add it; there is no partial patch for env files.
A row has no Edit or Delete actionIt is a Work-derived entry, computed rather than stored.Manage it on the Work itself — see Creating a Work.
The Import from GitHub App panel is emptyNo installations, or every repository is already imported.Install the App, or click Sync under Settings → GitHub App to refresh.
Onboard fails with "Only existing data repositories can be onboarded"Onboarding creates a Work, and only data repositories can be linked that way today.Import it into the registry instead, or see Work Import.
The repository is attached but the Agent does not seem to have it checked outMulti-repo mounting is advisory on the v1 sandbox / local workspace providers.Expected today — mounting attached repositories is not wired end-to-end yet; the grant is kept and will be honored when multi-repo mounting ships.