Keep your agent in Git

The ignore file is the first thing you write, not the thing you remember later. Once a key is committed, removing the line does not remove the key.

• A second copy: the repository is the version you did not lose with the laptop.
• A diff: what you told the agent, changed line by line, in a form a person can read.
• A way back: a version you can name, return to, and compare against.

The diff is the part people undervalue. It is the only honest record of the instructions you gave, and it is what you read the day an agent starts behaving differently.

git init
printf '.env\nmemory/\nlogs/\n' >> .gitignore
git add -A
git commit -m "First working version"

Then commit the state that works, before you change anything else. A working version you can name is worth more than a tidy history you cannot.

A branch keeps an experiment away from the version that works. A tag names the version worth returning to, so you can get back to it by name rather than by date.

A published pack is a tag other people download. Its history is what Run your first agent template tells a reader to check before pulling a newer one.

GitHub's own flow is ordinary and worth following: branch, commit, open a pull request, have it reviewed, then merge (GitHub flow). The same shape works when the second reader is you, six weeks from now.

Code review catches what a person can see. A prompt change is invisible in a diff's effect: the words look fine and the behaviour moved. So pair the diff with a small set of checks that must pass.

Anthropic's engineering guidance calls automated evaluations useful before launch and in continuous integration, run on every agent change and model upgrade, as a first line of defence (demystifying evals). Five good examples beat fifty vague ones.

Secrets in a build follow the same rule as everywhere else: they live in the settings, not in the file. GitHub's documented habit is to store them as encrypted repository secrets and refer to them by name (using secrets).

A repository on one disk is a copy, not a backup. Push it to a remote you control, and check once that the push arrived.

Two cautions before a client's work goes in. A public repository publishes your instructions and skills to anyone who looks. And a remote holds a copy on somebody else's service, so read their terms before the client's material goes up.