• How Autopilot Works
• Safety & Guarantees
• Failure & Recovery
• AI & Privacy
• Leaderboard & Metrics
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Commands
• Configuration
• Contributing
• License

Autopilot is a local CLI tool that runs in the background of your terminal. It watches your file system for changes and automates the Git workflow based on your configuration.

No Magic. Just Automation.

1. Watch: It monitors your project directory for file modifications, creations, and deletions.
2. Wait: It uses a smart debounce timer (default: 20s) to wait until you stop typing.
3. Check: It verifies the repository status (branch, remote, conflicts) before acting.
4. Commit: It stages changes and creates a commit. If AI is enabled, it generates a meaningful message; otherwise, it uses a smart template.
5. Push: It pushes to your remote repository (optional, enabled by default).

You can stop, pause, or undo Autopilot at any time.

We prioritize the safety of your code above all else. Autopilot follows strict rules to ensure your work is never lost or corrupted.

• Never force-pushes: Autopilot only performs standard git push operations. It will never overwrite remote history.
• Never commits ignored files: It strictly respects your .gitignore and .autopilotignore rules.
• Never operates during merge/rebase: If your repo is in a merge, rebase, or cherry-pick state, Autopilot pauses automatically.
• Never transmits source code without opt-in: Your code stays local. It is only sent to an AI provider (Gemini/Grok) if you explicitly enable AI features and provide your own API key.
• Pauses when uncertain: If a git error occurs, a conflict is detected, or the network fails, Autopilot pauses and waits for your intervention.
• Allows all actions to be undone: The autopilot undo command safely reverts the last automated commit without losing your file changes.

What happens when things go wrong? Autopilot is designed to fail safely.

• Merge Conflicts: If a git pull results in a conflict, Autopilot aborts the operation and notifies you. It will not attempt to resolve conflicts automatically.
• Network Issues: If the internet disconnects, Autopilot will queue commits locally and attempt to push when connectivity is restored (if auto-push is enabled).
• Accidental Commits: If Autopilot commits something you didn't intend, simply run autopilot undo. Your files will remain modified in your working directory, but the commit will be removed.

Autopilot offers optional AI integration (Google Gemini or xAI Grok) to generate context-aware commit messages.

• Opt-In Only: AI features are disabled by default. You must enable them and provide your own API key.
• Data Usage: When enabled, only the git diff (text changes) is sent to the AI provider to generate the message.
• Privacy: Your code is not trained on by Autopilot. We do not store or proxy your code. Interactions are directly between your machine and the AI provider.
• Ranking: AI usage does not affect your position on the Leaderboard.

Autopilot includes a Focus Engine that tracks your local productivity (coding time, commit streaks). You can optionally sync this data to the global Leaderboard.

• Participation is Opt-In: You must explicitly enable syncing with autopilot config set leaderboard.sync true.
• Privacy-Safe: We do not send your email or username directly. IDs are hashed/anonymized.
• No Code Collected: The leaderboard tracks metrics (time, counts), not code. No file contents are ever synced.
• Insight over Competition: The goal is to help you understand your habits, not to gamify commit spam. Rankings favor consistency and quality.

Install Autopilot globally using npm:

npm install -g @traisetech/autopilot

Or run it directly via npx:

npx @traisetech/autopilot start

1. Navigate to your Git repository:

   cd /path/to/my-project

2. Initialize Autopilot:

   autopilot init

   Follow the interactive prompts to configure settings (or accept defaults).

3. Start the watcher:

   autopilot start

   Autopilot is now running! It will monitor file changes and automatically commit/push them based on your configuration.

4. View the Dashboard: Open a new terminal and run:

   autopilot dashboard

Prefer a GUI? Use our official Autopilot VS Code Extension:

• Live Sidebar: Monitor status, branch, and queue at a glance.
• Integrated Logs: View color-coded process output directly in your editor.
• Quick Actions: Start, stop, pause, and undo with a single click from the status bar.
• Settings UI: Form-based configuration of your .autopilotrc.json.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace

Many commands (status, doctor, start, config) support a --json flag to return structured output suitable for reading programmatically (e.g. by the VS Code extension).

The CLI utilizes standardized exit codes for programmatic error handling:

• 0: Success / Running
• 1: General Error (Runtime failure)
• 2: Not a Git Repository
• 3: Not Initialized
• 4: Blocked Branch
• 5: Invalid Configuration
• 6: Watcher Already Running
• 7: Watcher Not Running

Autopilot uses an .autopilotrc.json file in your project root.

{
  "debounceSeconds": 20,
  "minSecondsBetweenCommits": 180,
  "autoPush": true,
  "blockBranches": ["main", "master"],
  "teamMode": true,
  "preventSecrets": true,
  "ai": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "gemini"
  }
}

See docs/CONFIGURATION.md for full details.

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'feat: add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.