Creating & Sharing Overlays

This guide covers how to create overlays from existing files and share them with others.

Creating an overlay

The create command packages files from your current repository into an overlay:

# Auto-detect org/repo from git remote
repoverlay create my-overlay

# Explicit path
repoverlay create microsoft/vscode/ai-config

Selecting files

Use --include to specify which files to include:

repoverlay create my-overlay --include .claude/ --include CLAUDE.md --include .envrc

Without --include, repoverlay launches an interactive file selector that detects AI configs, gitignored files, and untracked files as candidates.

Local output

Create an overlay in a local directory instead of pushing to an overlay repository:

repoverlay create --local ./my-overlay --include .envrc --include .claude/

Preview changes

Use --dry-run to see what would be created without writing anything:

repoverlay create my-overlay --dry-run

Overwriting an existing overlay

Use --force to overwrite an existing overlay:

repoverlay create my-overlay --force

Sharing overlays

Once created, overlays can be shared by pushing the overlay repository to GitHub. Others can then apply your overlays using the overlay repository reference syntax:

repoverlay apply org/repo/overlay-name