beads-remote

Dolt stores beads in the repo's own git remote under refs/dolt/data (plus a __dolt_remote_info__ branch), so no extra server or account is needed: whoever can push the code can push the beads.

Set up or join

Run the script from anywhere inside the repo:

scripts/beads-remote.sh                     # the repo's origin, prefix = directory name
scripts/beads-remote.sh --prefix web        # choose the prefix of a new database
scripts/beads-remote.sh --url git@github.com:org/repo.git
scripts/beads-remote.sh --cache-dir /var/tmp/cache/dolt-remote/web   # repo on EFS/NFS

It does only what is missing, so it is safe to run again:

1. Normalizes the URL for Dolt: https://, http://, ssh:// and file:// get git+; git@host:path becomes git+ssh://git@host/path; a path becomes git+file://.
2. No .beads yet: if the remote already has refs/dolt/data, clones those beads (their prefix wins); else bd init --stealth (beads files stay out of git via .git/info/exclude).
3. Adds the Dolt remote (--allow-git-origin, since sharing the code remote is the point) and sets sync.remote. A remote of the same name pointing elsewhere is an error, never overwritten.
4. With --cache-dir, moves Dolt's git-remote-cache there (embedded databases only).
5. Pulls when the remote has beads, pushes, then checks refs/dolt/data exists on the remote.

scripts/test.sh runs the whole round trip against a bare repo in a temp dir.

Gotchas

• Auth is plain git auth. Whatever makes git ls-remote <url> work (SSH key, credential helper, a URL rewrite such as a broker's insteadOf) makes the push work. Check that first.
• "ensure non-interactive auth is configured for GCM" can be a timeout, not auth. Dolt reports a killed push that way. On a network filesystem the cache inside .dolt makes pushes slow: use --cache-dir on local disk, and recreate that directory at login if the disk is wiped on reboot (a dangling cache symlink breaks every push).
• Shared Dolt server mode (BEADS_DOLT_SHARED_SERVER=1) keeps the database outside .beads; --cache-dir is skipped there.
• Protected branches: the remote must accept a push of refs/dolt/data and the __dolt_remote_info__ branch. Push rules that restrict branch names or refs block it.
• Not stealth? The script always uses --stealth. To commit .beads/ config with the code, run bd init yourself first; the script then only adds the remote.