Sync Types

Every target in your agentsync.toml config — every entry under [agents.<name>.targets.*] — has a sync type. The sync type defines how AgentSync turns a source into managed destination symlinks.

Sync type	What it does	Best for
symlink	One direct symlink from destination to source (file or whole directory)	The common case: CLAUDE.md, .claude/skills/
symlink-contents	One symlink per eligible item inside a source directory	Command directories, skills when the destination must stay a real directory
nested-glob	Recursively discover files by glob pattern, one symlink per match with template destinations	Monorepos with nested context files
module-map	Map specific source files to specific module directories	Distributing context files across modules

symlink

Creates a direct symbolic link at destination pointing to source. If source is a directory, the entire directory is linked.

[agents.claude.targets.instructions]
source = "AGENTS.md"
destination = "CLAUDE.md"
type = "symlink"

symlink-contents

Creates individual symbolic links for every eligible file inside the source directory, placed into the destination directory container. The destination stays a real directory.

[agents.claude.targets.commands]
source = "commands"
destination = ".claude/commands"
type = "symlink-contents"

You can filter which items are linked with a glob pattern:

[agents.claude.targets.commands]
source = "commands"
destination = ".claude/commands"
type = "symlink-contents"
pattern = "*.agent.md"

When the source has zero eligible entries, the destination remains a valid empty directory — agentsync status does not treat it as missing or “not a symlink”.

nested-glob

Recursively discovers files matching a glob pattern under source and creates a symlink for each one at the path produced by expanding the destination template.

Note: For nested-glob, source is relative to the project root — not to source_dir. All other sync types resolve source relative to source_dir.

The destination template supports these placeholders:

• {relative_path} — the parent directory of the matched file, relative to the search root (e.g. clients/runtime). Files directly in the search root resolve to ..
• {file_name} — the full name of the matched file (e.g. AGENTS.md).
• {stem} — the filename without its extension (e.g. AGENTS).
• {ext} — the file extension without the leading dot (e.g. md).

Use exclude to prune entire subtrees from the search. Directory matches stop traversal, so node_modules, node_modules/**, .git, and **/.git/** all prevent descending into those directories.

[agents.claude.targets.monorepo]
type = "nested-glob"
source = "packages"
pattern = "**/CONTEXT.md"
destination = "packages/{relative_path}/CLAUDE.md"
exclude = ["**/tests/**", "**/node_modules/**"]

module-map

Maps centrally-managed source files to specific module directories, creating a symlink per mapping with convention-based filenames.

[agents.claude.targets.modules]
source = "."   # Base directory for source files, relative to source_dir
destination = "."  # Base directory for destinations, relative to project root
type = "module-map"

[[agents.claude.targets.modules.mappings]]
source = "api-context.md"
destination = "src/api"

[[agents.claude.targets.modules.mappings]]
source = "ui-context.md"
destination = "src/ui"
filename_override = "CUSTOM-RULES.md"

The output filename is resolved with this priority:

1. filename_override — always wins when set.
2. The agent’s convention filename (e.g. CLAUDE.md for Claude).
3. The source file’s basename.

In the example above, src/api/CLAUDE.md points to .agents/api-context.md and src/ui/CUSTOM-RULES.md points to .agents/ui-context.md.

Which one should I use?

Situation	Sync type
One canonical file per agent (AGENTS.md → CLAUDE.md)	symlink
Whole skills/commands directory as one link	symlink
Destination must be a real directory with individual links	symlink-contents
Nested context files across a monorepo	nested-glob
Different context files to specific modules	module-map

These sync types behave the same on Windows. If your local Windows environment cannot create symlinks yet, fix the environment first — see the Windows Symlink Setup guide.