Private Repository

Overview

ARI puts you in control. The code is fully open source, giving you complete freedom and autonomy. You can store it in your own private GitHub repository, customize it to your needs, and build with confidence.

Set up your own private GitHub repository. Your code pushes here, while you can still pull updates from the official ARI repo. This is free — private repositories on GitHub are available on any account.

The same three steps are walked through on the GitHub tab of the /welcome wizard and are documented here for reference.

1. Authenticate with GitHub

If you haven't already, log in to GitHub via the CLI:

gh auth login

This uses the GitHub CLI (gh). Follow the prompts to complete authentication.

2. Create Your Private Repository

From your ARI project folder, run:

gh repo create my-ari --private --source=. --remote=origin --push

Replace my-ari with whatever you'd like to name your repo.

This single command creates a new private repository on GitHub, sets it as your origin remote, and pushes your current ARI project to it.

3. Verify Your Setup

Check that both remotes are configured:

git remote -v

You should see both remotes:

origin    https://github.com/you/my-ari.git (fetch)
origin    https://github.com/you/my-ari.git (push)
upstream  https://github.com/ARIsoftware/ARI.git (fetch)
upstream  https://github.com/ARIsoftware/ARI.git (push)

• origin = your private repo (your changes go here)
• upstream = official ARI repo (pull updates from here with /ari-update)

Enable GitHub Sync (Optional)

Enabling GitHub Sync is optional. When you install new modules from the Module Library, ARI can automatically commit them to your repo so they persist across rebuilds. To enable this, create a Personal Access Token and paste it into the wizard.

How to Create the Token

1. Go to github.com/settings/tokens and click Generate new token
2. Set Token name to something like ARI Module Sync
3. Set Expiration to your preference (or no expiration)
4. Under Repository access, select Only select repositories and choose your ARI repo
5. Click Repository permissions, find Contents, and set it to Read and write
6. Click Generate token and copy it

Paste the Token into ARI

Back on the GitHub tab of /welcome, fill in the three fields:

Once saved, ARI will automatically commit and push module installs to your private repo so they persist across rebuilds.

Next Steps

• Backup & Restore — Export and import your ARI data
• Upgrading — Pull updates from upstream
• Security — Harden your instance