Fork Inheritance

When you work on a fork of a repository, repoverlay can automatically inherit overlays from the upstream (parent) repository. This means you don't need to duplicate overlay configurations for every fork.

How it works

When you apply an overlay from a shared overlay repository, repoverlay follows this resolution order:

1. Direct match — look for an overlay matching your fork's org/repo
2. Upstream fallback — if no direct match exists and an upstream remote is configured, look for an overlay matching the upstream's org/repo

Example

Suppose you've forked microsoft/FluidFramework to tylerbutler/FluidFramework:

# Your fork's remotes
git remote -v
# origin    git@github.com:tylerbutler/FluidFramework.git
# upstream  git@github.com:microsoft/FluidFramework.git

# This will first check for tylerbutler/FluidFramework/claude-config,
# then fall back to microsoft/FluidFramework/claude-config
repoverlay apply microsoft/FluidFramework/claude-config

Upstream detection

repoverlay detects the upstream repository by scanning git remotes for one named upstream — the standard convention for forks. Both HTTPS and SSH remote URLs are supported.

Status display

When an overlay is resolved via upstream fallback, repoverlay status shows how it was resolved:

Overlay: claude-config
  Source:  microsoft/FluidFramework/claude-config (via upstream) (overlay repo)
  Commit:  abc123def456