Moving Repos with Flow

How Flow manages repository locations, migration, and AI session continuity.

Directory Layout

Flow uses three managed roots:

Cloning Into the Right Place

f clone

Clones with git-like destination behavior from your current working directory:

f clone owner/repo
f clone https://github.com/owner/repo
f clone owner/repo local-folder

GitHub inputs are normalized to SSH URLs, but destination behavior matches git clone (no forced ~/repos root).

f repos clone

Clones GitHub repos into ~/repos/<owner>/<repo>:

f repos clone owner/repo          # -> ~/repos/owner/repo
f repos clone https://github.com/owner/repo

Shallow clone by default with background full-history fetch. Auto-sets upstream remote for forks. Initializes jj with --colocate.

~/repos is immutable by default. Override with FLOW_REPOS_ALLOW_ROOT_OVERRIDE=1.

See commands/repos.md for full options.

f code

Fuzzy-search git repos under ~/code and open in editor:

f code         # fzf picker over ~/code
f code list    # list all repos under ~/code

Moving a Project

f migrate (primary command)

Moves or copies a project folder and automatically:

1. Moves/copies the directory (handles cross-device transparently)
2. Relinks ~/bin symlinks pointing into the old path (move only)
3. Migrates Claude and Codex AI sessions to the new path

Three usage forms:

# Move current dir into ~/code/<relative>
cd ~/old/location/myproject
f migrate code myproject              # -> ~/code/myproject
f migrate code lang/rust/mylib        # -> ~/code/lang/rust/mylib

# Move current dir to any path
f migrate ~/code/stream

# Move a specific source to a target (no cd needed)
f migrate ~/code/lang/cpp/stream ~/code/stream

Options:

Preview first:

f migrate --dry-run code stream

What Happens to AI Sessions

Claude and Codex store project sessions keyed by filesystem path:

• Claude: ~/.claude/projects/<path-key> directories are renamed
• Codex: ~/.codex/projects/<path-key> directories are renamed, plus .jsonl session files under ~/.codex/sessions/ are updated in-place (the cwd field in session_meta records)
• Seq zvec index: if present at ~/repos/alibaba/zvec/data/agent_qa.jsonl, matching docs are migrated so metadata.project_path (and project-keyed metadata.source_path) follows the new repo path for semantic session search.

After migration a summary is printed:

Session migration summary:
  Claude project dirs moved: 1
  Codex legacy dirs moved: 1
  Codex jsonl files updated: 2
  Seq zvec docs updated: 124

When copying (--copy), sessions are duplicated with a derived ID so both locations have independent history. Seq zvec docs are duplicated too, with copied doc IDs and rewritten metadata.project_path.

f code migrate (alternative form)

Same as f migrate code but accessed through the code subcommand:

f code migrate ~/old/path myproject   # -> ~/code/myproject

f code move-sessions (standalone session migration)

Migrate only AI sessions without moving any files:

f code move-sessions --from /old/path --to /new/path
f code move-sessions --from /old/path --to /new/path --dry-run

Useful when you moved a repo manually and need to fix sessions after the fact. This also updates Seq zvec path metadata when the index exists.

To override the default zvec file or disable zvec migration:

# Use a custom zvec JSONL file
export FLOW_AGENT_QA_ZVEC_JSONL=/path/to/agent_qa.jsonl

# Disable zvec migration for this command
export FLOW_AGENT_QA_ZVEC_JSONL=""

Run Repos (~/run)

Run repos are a separate system for executing Flow tasks across multiple codebases without cd.

f r <task>                  # run in ~/run
f ri <task>                 # run in ~/run/i
f rp <project> <task>       # run in ~/run/<project> (falls back to i/<project>)
f rip <project> <task>      # run in ~/run/i/<project>

Management:

f run-load <name> <url>     # clone/update a run repo
f run-sync                  # sync all run repos
f run-list                  # list all run repos

See run-repos.md for full details.

Common Workflows

Move a project into ~/code

cd ~/downloads/cool-project
f migrate code cool-project
# -> ~/code/cool-project with sessions migrated

Reorganize nested projects

f migrate ~/code/lang/cpp/stream ~/code/stream
# Directory moved, ~/bin symlinks updated, sessions migrated

Clone a fork with upstream tracking

f repos clone myfork/repo
# -> ~/repos/myfork/repo
# upstream auto-detected via gh API, jj initialized

Copy a project for experimentation

f migrate --copy ~/code/app ~/code/app-experiment
# Original untouched, sessions duplicated with new IDs

Fix sessions after a manual move

mv ~/code/old ~/code/new
f code move-sessions --from ~/code/old --to ~/code/new

See Also

• commands/clone.md — f clone (git-like destination behavior)
• commands/repos.md — f repos clone / f repos create
• commands/migrate.md — f migrate full reference
• run-repos.md — run repo shortcuts