repomatic

Spin up, reset, and share AI coding tool demo repos in one command.

Demoing AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Lovable through Slack is great — until you want to demo them again. You have to revert the PR, unstick the repo, reset the state, and hope nothing else got in the way. If you want someone else to try the demo in their own workspace, you end up walking them through a dozen manual steps.

repomatic is a small CLI that handles the boring parts: provisioning a fresh demo repo from a template, resetting it cleanly after each demo, and printing the runbook for installing the vendor's Slack app in whoever's workspace is trying it.

It doesn't replace or wrap the official Slack integrations — you still use Claude Code's Slack app, Codex's Slack app, etc. out of the box. repomatic just manages the repo side so you can demo repeatedly without friction.

Getting started

This walks you through going from zero to running your first demo.

1. Install prerequisites

You need three things installed on your machine:

• Node.js 18 or later — check with node --version. If missing, install from nodejs.org or use a version manager like nvm.
• Git — check with git --version. If missing, install from git-scm.com.
• GitHub CLI (gh) — check with gh --version. If missing, install from cli.github.com.

Then authenticate gh to your GitHub account:

gh auth login

Follow the prompts — HTTPS, authenticate via browser. This is how repomatic will act on your behalf when creating and resetting repos.

2. Clone and install repomatic

gh repo clone andrewn-net/repomatic
cd repomatic
npm install
npm link

npm link makes the repomatic command available globally on your machine — you can run it from any directory after this.

3. Verify your setup

repomatic init

You should see three green checkmarks: gh installed, git installed, GitHub authenticated. If any fail, the error message tells you what to fix.

4. Create your first demo repo

repomatic provision ai-demo-1

This creates a new private repo called ai-demo-1 in your GitHub account, copied from the template repository. The output includes the repo URL. Pass --public if you explicitly want a public repo.

5. Install the Slack app

repomatic setup ai-demo-1

This prints the install URL for the AI's Slack app (e.g. Claude Code or Codex), plus a runbook for connecting it to your new demo repo. Follow those steps in your browser.

6. Run the demo

In Slack, mention your AI tool (e.g. @Claude Code) and ask it to work through the repository. It will open a PR. Review it, merge it.

7. Reset for the next demo

repomatic reset ai-demo-1

The repo rewinds to its starting state, and any open PRs close. You're ready to demo again.

After the one-time setup, your repeat-demo loop is just steps 6 and 7 — ask the AI to build a feature in Slack, merge the PR, run repomatic reset. That's the whole point.

Using repomatic day-to-day

Run repomatic with no arguments to open an interactive menu — handy when you don't remember the exact command:

repomatic

Or run commands directly:

Command	What it does
init	Check that gh, git, and GitHub auth are all set up
list	Show available demo scenarios
provision <scenario>	Create a fresh demo repo in your GitHub account
reset <scenario>	Force the demo repo back to its starting state and close any open PRs
setup <scenario>	Print the runbook for installing the scenario's Slack app
status	Show which demos are provisioned and whether any are mid-demo

Most commands accept --manifest <url|path> to use a custom scenario catalog, and --name <n> to override the default repo name. provision creates repos as private by default; add --public if needed.

How reset works

Every demo repo has a demo-start tag on its initial commit. When you run repomatic reset, the CLI:

1. Closes any open PRs on your demo repo
2. Clones it to a temp directory
3. Hard-resets the default branch to demo-start
4. Force-pushes

That keeps the same repo URL (so your Slack app's repo connection stays valid) and gets you back to a clean starting state in a few seconds.

Sharing demos with others

repomatic is designed so anyone can run the same demos in their GitHub account and their Slack workspace, with no shared infrastructure between you. The getting-started steps above work the same for anyone — they clone this repo, link it, provision into their own account, and install the Slack app in their own workspace. No secrets cross between your environment and theirs.

Available scenarios

AI Coding — Feature Build Demo

A minimal Next.js outdoor-gear storefront (Summit Supply). Designed for demoing AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Lovable in Slack. Ask the AI to fix a bug or add a feature; it opens a PR implementing the changes. Merge it, run repomatic reset ai-demo-1, and you're back to square one.

Template: andrewn-net/repomatic-template-demo-1

How it's structured

• This repo (repomatic) — the CLI itself
• Template repos (repomatic-<scenario>-demo) — one per scenario, marked as GitHub templates, contain the starting state for each demo. The CLI copies these into users' accounts when they run provision.
• manifest.json — the scenario catalog. Lists each scenario, its template repo, the Slack app install URL, and the runbook steps.

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or later
• gh CLI installed and authenticated (gh auth login)
• Git

repomatic uses the gh CLI for all GitHub operations, so it never touches your GitHub tokens directly — they stay in your OS keychain where gh put them.

License

MIT