Pull from another setup
A pull copies skills, agents, MCP servers, setup files and rules from one agent setup into another, after you have reviewed every change. An agent setup is a named bundle of what your AI coding tools work with: skills, agents, rules, MCP servers and setup files.
A pull adds and replaces items in the setup that receives them. It deletes nothing from that setup and leaves the source setup as it is. The source is one of the following.
| Source | What it is | Where you can pull from it |
|---|---|---|
| This project | Another setup of the same project, including your project's copy of the standard setup. | Web app, /atn-manage, CLI |
| Another project | A setup of another project you are a member of, in any role. | Web app |
| Library | An entry of the setup library, the shared catalogue of agent setups that projects have published. | Web app. From /atn-manage and the CLI, you merge the entry. |
Start a pull in the web app
Pull when one setup already has a skill, an agent or rules that another setup should have too, for example to bring the skills of a "Security review" setup into your project's copy of the standard setup. You need the owner or editor role in the project of the setup that receives the content.
- In the project's sidebar, open Setups and select the card of the setup that should receive the content.
- On the blueprint, open the menu of the setup at the centre and select Pull from….
- In the dialog Pull into, choose where to pull from: This project, Another project or Library.
- If you chose Another project, choose the project.
- Choose the source setup. If you chose Library, search for the entry and choose it.
- Select Continue.
The review page opens. For the two setups of the example its title is Pull "Security review" into "Athenode". Nothing has been written at this point. With Library as the source, the review page is the one for merging a library entry, which the setup library describes.
Review the items a pull adds and replaces
The review page has one section each for Skills, Agents, MCP servers and Files. Within a section, every item of the source setup is a new item, a conflict or an identical item.
| Group | What it holds | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| New items | Items your setup does not have. | All are selected. Deselect the ones you do not want, or use Select all and Select none. |
| Conflicts | Items your setup has under the same name, or files at the same path, with different content. | Keep mine, which is preselected, or Replace with the source setup's one. |
| Identical items | Items that are already the same in your setup. | None. Nothing is written for them. |
To see how a conflicting item differs, select Compare. The comparison shows your setup's version on the left and the source setup's version on the right.
Some conflicts are marked Cannot be replaced, with the reason beside them. This happens, for example, when one of your agents defines an MCP server with the same name, or when a path is a file in one setup and a folder in the other. Such an item stays as it is in your setup.
MCP servers pulled from another project arrive without the values that were typed in directly there. The review page marks those servers Values cleared: their environment variables and headers come over with empty values, and ${VAR} references are kept. Fill the values in after the pull, in the MCP servers of your setup. Between two setups of one project, MCP servers are copied with their values.
Choose what happens to the rules
A setup has one rules text, so the rules are one choice for the whole pull. When both setups have rules and they differ, choose what happens to yours.
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| Keep mine | Your rules stay as they are. This is preselected. |
| Append the source setup's rules | The source setup's rules are added after yours, under a heading with the source setup's name. |
| Replace with the source setup's rules | The source setup's rules take the place of yours. |
Compare shows the two texts side by side. Rules hold up to 50,000 characters, and appending is unavailable when the combined text would be longer. When the two rules texts are identical, or the source setup has none, the page says so and nothing is written. Rules in a setup covers editing the rules afterwards.
Apply the pull
The foot of the review page sums up your choices: how many items will be added, how many will be replaced and what happens to the rules.
- Check the summary against what you intended.
- Select Pull.
- If your choices replace anything, read the list in the dialog Replace these items? and select Replace and apply.
Warning
Replacing an item or the rules overwrites your version of it. This cannot be undone.
The web app confirms that the source was pulled into your setup, and the blueprint shows the added items.
A pull is applied as a whole. New skills, agents and MCP servers count towards the limits of the project's plan for one setup, which on the Free plan are 10 skills, 15 agents and 3 MCP servers. If the pull would exceed a limit, nothing is changed, and you deselect items or have the owner upgrade the plan. Plans and limits has the limits of every plan.
If either setup changes while the review page is open, the page loads the preview again and asks you to check your choices and apply once more.
If the setup that received the content is installed in a local project directory, run npx @athenode/cli init there to bring the pulled items into your AI tools, and restart the AI tool when skills, agents or MCP servers were added. Install a setup describes the plan init shows.
Work with pulled items afterwards
A pulled item is a copy that belongs to your setup. Changing it later does not change the source setup, and changes to the source do not reach your copy. This holds between two setups of the same project as well.
A skill arrives with all of its bundle files. A skill that was imported from a repository keeps its connection to that repository, so you can go on updating it in your setup.
A pull is a one-time copy. The setup shows no update notice for pulled content, and to get later changes from the source you pull again and review the conflicts.
In your project's copy of the standard setup, a built-in skill, agent or the rules that you replace through a pull counts as changed by you. It then keeps your version when Athenode updates the standard setup, as the standard Athenode setup describes.
Pull from your AI tool or the terminal
From your AI tool, ask /atn-manage to pull one setup of the project into another, in full or only the items you name. It shows you the new, conflicting and identical items first and asks before it replaces anything.
From the terminal, preview a pull with setups pull-preview and apply it with setups pull. Name the source setup first and the receiving setup with --setup, each by its exact name:
npx @athenode/cli setups pull-preview "Security review" --setup "Athenode"npx @athenode/cli setups pull "Security review" --setup "Athenode"setups pull without further options adds everything that is new, replaces nothing and keeps your rules. To select items, replace conflicts or change the rules choice, pass the preview back with your choices in --decisions or --decisions-file. If either setup changed since the preview, nothing is written and you preview again. The Athenode CLI reference gives the options of both commands.
A pull into the installed setup from /atn-manage or the CLI updates your local files in the same step. Both work with the setups of the connected project, and you pull from a setup of another project in the web app.