Sync

driftless sync is an optional team-wide digest. You almost never need it, and never to start. Drift already reaches you as a freshness badge when you driftless context get the area you’re working on. Reach for sync only when you want to scan everything that moved at once. It does not inspect your local diff and it does not retrieve file-specific context. It pulls the repo memory state from Driftless Cloud and answers one question:

What changed around this repo’s topics since I last looked?

Command

Command	Flags	Description	Example
`sync`	`--json`	Show persisted stale topics and suggested topics	`driftless sync`

driftless sync

Typical output:

▌ acme/platform
  workspace: acme  (resolved via config)
⚠  2 topics drifted, the team changed code these topics cover, context may be behind:
   auth-boundaries
     src/auth/session.ts changed
     → review the change; if it changed how this works: driftless context update auth-boundaries --what "..." --how "..."

What sync checks

Signal	Source	What to do
Stale topics	Explicit local `context get --diff --mark`	Review the changed code and update the topic if the behavior changed
Suggested topics	Pending suggestions	Review and confirm useful context

When to use sync

The everyday loop doesn’t need sync. Go straight to retrieval, which carries the freshness badge inline:

driftless context get --files "src/auth/session.ts,src/auth/token.ts"

Reach for sync only when you want the whole team-wide picture at once:

driftless sync

If you already have local changes and want matching topics for the diff:

driftless context get --diff

JSON output

Use --json when an agent or script needs structured output:

driftless sync --json

The JSON output includes:

Field	Meaning
`repo`	Repository identity resolved from the current remote
`workspace`	Driftless workspace slug
`stale_topics`	Topics whose anchored code changed
`suggested_pending`	Number of suggested topics awaiting review

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Platform

Command

What sync checks

When to use sync

JSON output

​Command

​What sync checks

​When to use sync

​JSON output

Command

What sync checks

When to use sync

JSON output