---
type: types/instruction.md
name: private-instance
description: Set up a private working instance as a clone of a public upstream, so stack updates arrive by merge instead of by copying a tarball over the tree.
---

# Set up a private instance against a public upstream

The distribution path in [setup-instance.md](setup-instance.md) builds an instance from a
`dist export` tarball, with no git ancestry in common with the repo it came from. That is the
right shape for someone who only ever *consumes* the stack.

This is the other shape: a private instance that keeps taking stack changes from a public
upstream, and whose own content must never travel back. It costs one safeguard to set up and
saves the whole update procedure afterwards.

**Read this before, not after, the first `publish`.** The gate in step 4 is the thing that makes
the arrangement safe, and adding it later means the window it closes was open in between.

## Why a clone rather than a tarball

`INSTALL.md`'s "Eine Instanz aktualisieren" is `cp -r` as an upgrade strategy: copy `tools/`,
`types/`, `instructions/`, `AGENTS.md`, `VERSION` over the existing tree. It has no three-way
merge, so it cannot notice that the receiving instance changed a file, and it has no conflict
surface, so nobody learns when upstream and local both touched the same one. It overwrites
silently.

A clone gets all of that from git. The private `main` deletes the upstream's demo corpus once;
every later `git merge upstream/main` sees *deleted-in-ours, unmodified-in-theirs* and resolves
without asking. Stack changes land as real merges, with real conflicts where they conflict.

## Steps

1. **Clone, and name the two remotes for what they are.**

   ```bash
   git clone <private-repo-url> my-wiki
   cd my-wiki
   git remote add upstream <public-repo-url>
   ```

   `origin` is yours and is the only thing you ever push to. `upstream` is where stack updates
   come from and is fetch-only.

2. **Make the fetch-only half fetch-only in git, too.**

   ```bash
   git remote set-url --push upstream no_push
   ```

   git refuses to push to a URL it cannot resolve. This is a convenience, not the safeguard -
   step 4 is the safeguard.

3. **Delete the upstream's demo corpus once, on your own `main`.**

   Everything under `kb/` and `raw/` that came with the clone is the upstream's content, not
   yours. Remove it with `wikitool rm --page` (never `rm -rf`: `rm` de-links each page from the
   rest of the wiki, and a plain delete leaves dead wikilinks and broken citations behind), then
   `index rebuild`, `sources rebuild-index`, `lint`.

   This is a one-time cut. Afterwards the upstream corpus is frozen from your side, which is
   what makes later merges content-free.

4. **Arm the Publish-Remote Gate — before the first `publish`.**

   ```bash
   cat > .wikitool-remotes.json <<'EOF'
   { "schema": 1, "allowed_push_urls": ["<your-private-push-url>"] }
   EOF
   ```

   Use the URL `git remote get-url --push origin` prints, exactly. `publish` refuses with exit
   42 for anything else, and there is no flag that opens it - see [gates.md](gates.md).

   The file is gitignored, so it stays with this checkout and never travels to the upstream.
   `wikitool doctor` reports whether the gate is armed, and WARNs at more than one remote
   without it.

5. **Take away the write credential, if you can.** A token or deploy key for `origin` only,
   with no write access to the upstream, is the one control that holds even if everything above
   is misconfigured. Belt and braces.

6. **Personalize and bootstrap.** `USER.md`, `SOUL.md` and optionally `ENVIRONMENT.md` are
   yours and unrelated to the upstream's - see the Personalization step of
   [setup-instance.md](setup-instance.md), then [bootstrap.md](bootstrap.md) for the venv and
   the skills.

## Taking a stack update

```bash
git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/main
```

Then, as after any stack change: `doctor`, `docs verify`, `instructions verify`, `migrate status`,
`lint`. A `migrate status` with outstanding links means the update crossed a compatibility
boundary - follow [migrate-corpus.md](migrate-corpus.md) before doing anything else.

## Where stack development happens

**In the public repo, not here.** That is not a preference; the stack is built that way. The
development-only half of the instruction layer is pruned from a distribution one-way, with no
command that reconstructs it, so an instance built this way has no tool-development mode to
switch into in the first place.

When a tool bug blocks real content work here - and it will - file the issue against the public
repo (an MCP server or the web UI reaches it from any session; no shared history needed), fix it
there where the tests, `docs verify` and CI's version gate live, and take the fix back with the
merge above. Nothing is lost by the detour: the fix has to pass that CI either way.

## Decision points

- **Merge conflict in `kb/` or `raw/`?** Something changed the upstream's corpus after you cut
  it. Resolve as "keep deleted" - your instance's content is yours, and the upstream's demo
  corpus has no business in it.
- **Conflict in `tools/`, `types/` or `instructions/`?** You changed the stack locally, which
  step "Where stack development happens" says not to do. Take the upstream side and re-file the
  change as an issue there.

## Scope

Not for a first instance with no upstream - that is [setup-instance.md](setup-instance.md). Not
for a fresh clone of a repo you already own and develop in - that is
[bootstrap.md](bootstrap.md). This is specifically the two-remote case, where the cost of a
mistaken push is disclosure rather than inconvenience.