Edit the profile

Goal: change a value in the shared profile and push it into every harness you have installed.

PrerequisitesCopy Anchor Link

• The apothem CLI on your PATH (or the self-contained form: prefix with PYTHONPATH="$HOME/.apothem/src" and run python -m apothem, or use npx @ahmed-g-gad/apothem).
• A profile at ~/.config/apothem/profile.yaml. Create one with apothem profile init if it is missing.

The profile shapeCopy Anchor Link

The profile is a single YAML document. Its top-level keys:

• identity (required) — name, plus optional role, email, website, github.
• preferences — language, style (concise / verbose / balanced), formatter, test_framework.
• rules — a list of extra rule strings shared with capable harnesses.
• seriousness — one of EXPLORING, PERSONAL_USE, SHARED, PUBLIC_LAUNCH.
• enforcement — opt-in toggles (sprints, agent_teams, multitasking, continuous_execution, learning_loop), every flag default-off.
• harnesses — per-harness overrides keyed by harness id.
• exclude_harnesses — harness ids skipped by batch (--harness all) commands.
• mcp_servers — MCP server definitions keyed by server name.
• agent_mcp_servers — per helper name, the MCP servers that helper may call (see Give a helper access to MCP servers). Empty by default, so no helper reaches an MCP tool.
• workspace — where Apothem keeps its shared working directory (directory_name, scope).
• schema_version — optional profile-schema version; a profile without it is read as version 1.

Every field is listed in Profile fields.

StepsCopy Anchor Link

1. Inspect the current profile:

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   apothem profile show

2. Edit it. Open it in your system editor:

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   apothem profile edit

   Or set a single dotted key from the command line. The value is stored literally (except true/false and explicit [..]/{..} input, which are parsed) and the profile is validated against the schema before writing — an invalid set is refused and the profile on disk is unchanged:

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   apothem profile set seriousness SHARED
   apothem profile set identity.name "Ada Lovelace"

3. Re-materialize the harnesses so the change reaches their native config. For a user-scope harness:

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   apothem update --harness claude-code

   For a project-scope harness, pass the project root; use all to refresh every installed harness:

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   apothem update --harness cursor --project /path/to/project
   apothem update --harness all --project /path/to/project

VerifyCopy Anchor Link

apothem profile show
apothem verify --harness all

profile show reflects your edit.

apothem verify --harness all checks every registered harness except those the profile's exclude_harnesses lists, so it exits non-zero unless all of the others are installed. Project-scope harnesses also need --project PATH; without it the batch stops with a project.required error. To check only the harness you updated, run the same command with that harness's name:

apothem verify --harness <name>

For a whole-system view that tolerates harnesses you have not installed, run apothem doctor.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Add a harness to bring a new harness under profile control before re-materializing.
• Updating covers upgrading the engine alongside the re-materialize step.