Moving a Team Between Repos

Try this to save your team:

Export my team from project-a so I can import it into project-b

Try this to transfer trained agents:

Import the alpha-team.json into this new repo

Export trained agents from one repo, import into another. They bring skills and portable knowledge — project-specific learnings stay tagged so they don’t bleed.

1. Export from the Source Repo

Export a trained team from one repo and import it into another. Agents carry their skills and portable knowledge — project-specific learnings stay tagged so they don’t bleed into the new project.

In the repo where your team currently lives:

cd ~/projects/project-alpha
npx github:bradygaster/squad export

✅ Exported squad to squad-export.json
⚠ Review agent histories before sharing — they may contain project-specific information

This creates squad-export.json — a portable snapshot containing agents, casting state, skills, and accumulated knowledge.

You can also specify a custom output path:

npx github:bradygaster/squad export --out ~/exports/alpha-team.json

2. Initialize Squad in the Target Repo

The target repo needs Squad installed before importing:

cd ~/projects/project-beta
npx github:bradygaster/squad

✅ .github/agents/squad.agent.md (v0.2.0)
✅ .ai-team-templates/
✅ .ai-team/skills/ (starter skills)
✅ .ai-team/ceremonies.md
✅ .gitattributes (merge=union rules)

Squad is ready.

3. Import the Team

npx github:bradygaster/squad import ~/projects/project-alpha/squad-export.json

✅ Imported squad from squad-export.json
  5 agents: Danny, Rusty, Linus, Basher, Scribe
  3 skills imported
  Casting: usual-suspects universe preserved

⚠ Project-specific learnings are marked in agent histories — review if needed

Next steps:
  1. Open Copilot and select Squad
  2. Tell the team about this project — they'll adapt

4. Handle Collisions

If .ai-team/ already exists (e.g., this repo already had a team), import will fail:

npx github:bradygaster/squad import squad-export.json

✗ A squad already exists here. Use --force to replace (current squad will be archived).

Use --force to archive the existing team and replace it:

npx github:bradygaster/squad import squad-export.json --force

The existing .ai-team/ is moved to .ai-team-archive-2025-07-15-14-30-00/. Nothing is deleted.

5. Tell the Team About the New Project

Open Copilot and introduce the team to their new context:

copilot

> This is project-beta — a mobile app backend in Python/FastAPI.
> We use SQLAlchemy for the ORM and pytest for testing.
> The API serves a React Native mobile client.

Agents adapt. Their portable knowledge (general patterns, coding practices, team dynamics) carries over. Project-specific learnings from the old project are preserved in their histories but tagged:

📌 Imported from squad-export on 2025-07-15. Portable knowledge
carried over; project learnings from previous project preserved below.

6. History Splitting

During import, agent histories are automatically split:

  • Portable knowledge — general learnings that transfer across projects (coding patterns, architectural principles, team conventions). These carry over normally.
  • Project-specific learnings — file paths, sprint details, PR references, session logs from the old project. These are preserved under a ## Project Learnings (from import) section so agents can reference them but don’t confuse old project details with the new one.

Tips

  • Review histories before sharing. Agent histories may contain project-specific information — file paths, API keys mentioned in context, internal architecture details. Review squad-export.json before sending it to someone outside your organization.
  • Import starts fresh decisions. The imported team gets an empty decisions.md. Old decisions lived in the source project’s context. Tell agents your conventions for the new project — they’ll capture them.
  • Casting universe is preserved. Agents keep their names and the fictional universe they were drawn from. Danny is still Danny.
  • Archives are cheap insurance. When using --force, the old team is archived, not deleted. If the import doesn’t work out, rename the archive back to .ai-team/.
  • Skills carry over. Earned skills (with confidence levels) transfer with the team. Agents don’t lose expertise when they move.