Customized PAI + Pulling Updates

[smolcompute]

I've been trying to figure out how to handle customization while pulling updates for months. After a lot of trials and tribulations, here's what I have come to :

~/
├── .claude/                      
│   ├── agents/
│   │    ├── architect.md       # symlink to PAI agent
│   │    ├── custom-agent.md    # symlink to custom agent
│   ├── hooks/
│   └── skills/
│
└── DIGITAL-ASSISTANT/  
    ├── PAI/     # cloned public PAI repo, customization minimal
    │   └── .claude/
    │       ├── agents/
    │       ├── voice-server/
    │       ├── hooks/
    │       └── skills/
    │
    ├── KAI/      # private repo with my personalized workflows
    │   └── .claude/
    │       ├── agents/
    │       ├── hooks/
    │       └── skills/
    │
    └── PRIVATE/   # not a repo. This data stays local only
        └── journal/

So essentially I have a folder containing 2 completely separate repos:

• The PAI repo provides the foundation and core functionality (voice server, main hooks, shipped skills, fabric). I try not to modify this repo to avoid merge conflicts when I pull updates from the upstream PAI repo. If I modify files here I keep it minimal and targeted. I try to get issues fixed on the upstream public repo rather than change the code myself.

• The KAI repo (or whatever your DA is called) is an entirely private repo where I keep my own agents, hooks, skills, etc. This repo has its own separate history (no merge conflicts). If I need to reinstall PAI from scratch, this repo is untouched.

• PRIVATE is data I want my DA to have access to but that I do not want copied to Github for privacy and security concerns. I could also put it into the KAI private repo and gitignore it of course.

So how do I get this all to work together ? Symlinks. I use a script that Claude wrote that:

1. Looks at PAI/.claude/ and for each folder there, creates an equivalent empty folder in ~/.claude
2. Then creates or updates symlinks for each file in PAI/.claude/ and KAI/.claude/ and places them inside ~/.claude in the correct folder.

The result is that all my agents (the stock PAI ones and my own now have a symlink inside ~/.claude/agents/ , and so on.

You can create an alias that updates these symlinks and launches claude at the same time.

Curious how people are organizing their custom install.

[lisamariet]

I have been struggling with the same question and I have a somewhat similar start as you have. But I am new to symlinks and how this works so not tried that out.
My issues is with there is a lot of the text inside PAI that I would want to have different. And how would I do that.. Even If I had the same file in the Kai repo.. how would I then be able to get the updated version of PAI file. I have no answer to this yet.

[smolcompute]

The goal I think is to minimize changes the PAI repo itself to avoid conflicts. Basic customization should be done via env variables. And for more intense customization, you can create copies of the files you want to modify and modify those instead. Say you want to modify a hook:

• create a copy
• modify it
• tell the settings.json file to use your version instead

Personally I'll keep my own versions in a separate repo for tidyness, but that's not necessary.