Beads/Q/What is necessary in order to use Dolt in a private Git repository that should never be pushed to GitHub as a backing for Beads (bd)?
What is necessary in order to use Dolt in a private Git repository that should never be pushed to GitHub as a backing for Beads (bd)?
Answer
- AI/Response
- Nothing about Dolt requires GitHub. For replication you configure a Dolt remote pointing at any Git remote whose URL is accepted as a Git-style remote (HTTPS or SSH to self-hosted GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo, a bare repo on disk (
file://… or a path ending in .git), etc.). Dolt stores its sync payload under a Git ref (default refs/dolt/data). Dolt docs — Using Remotes (Git remotes) - Tooling prerequisites — Install
dolt and ensure git is on your PATH (Dolt shells out to Git for Git remotes). The empty-repo caveat: the Git remote must already have at least one branch; initialize it with a seed commit before the first dolt push. Same section — Requirements and caveats - Private / never-on-GitHub — Use a non-GitHub URL when you run
dolt remote add inside the Beads Dolt database directory (typically .beads/dolt/ after bd init). Examples from the docs: git+https://host/org/repo.git, git@host:org/repo.git, ../remote.git, or file:///abs/path/to/repo.git. Authentication is ordinary Git access (SSH keys, HTTPS credentials, etc.) to that host. Git remotes — Accepted URL formats - Beads-specific —
bd keeps the live DB under .beads/dolt/ and sync is “Dolt-native”; configure remotes the same way you would for standalone Dolt, then use Beads’ Dolt commands (e.g. bd dolt …) per project docs. If CLI and the embedded server disagree on remotes, bd doctor --fix and issues around bd dolt pull vs dolt pull are documented in the tracker (remote config must live where both see it). Beads Quick Start — Database location - Alternatives if you do not want Git at all for the remote — Dolt also supports filesystem, S3/GCS/OCI, SSH-to-directory, DoltHub/DoltLab, etc., but Git-backed workflows specifically mean “any Git server,” not GitHub. Remotes overview
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