Create asset sources

An asset source is a directory that organizes coding agent assets by type. nd supports three source types: local (a directory on disk), git (a cloned repository), and builtin (embedded in the nd binary). This guide explains how to structure your own local or git source.

Directory convention

nd discovers assets by looking for directories named after asset types:

my-assets/
├── skills/
│   ├── greeting/           # Directory asset
│   └── code-review/        # Directory asset
├── agents/
│   └── researcher.md       # File asset
├── commands/
│   └── deploy-all.md       # File asset
├── output-styles/
│   └── concise.md          # File asset
├── rules/
│   └── no-emojis.md        # File asset
├── context/
│   ├── go-project-rules/   # Folder-per-asset layout
│   │   ├── CLAUDE.md       # Context file
│   │   └── _meta.yaml      # Optional metadata
│   └── coding-standards/
│       └── CLAUDE.md
├── plugins/
│   └── my-plugin/          # Directory asset (not symlink-deployed)
└── hooks/
    └── pre-commit/         # Directory asset

Not every directory needs to be present. nd only discovers assets in directories that exist.

Asset types

Context files

Context files have special deployment rules:

• Global scope: Deployed to the agent’s global directory (e.g., ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md)
• Project scope: Deployed to the project root directly (e.g., ./CLAUDE.md), not inside .claude/
• Local files (*.local.md): Deploy only at project scope

_meta.yaml

Context files can include a _meta.yaml sidecar for metadata:

description: "Project coding standards and conventions"
tags: ["standards", "conventions"]

Manifest file

For sources that don’t follow the convention-based directory structure, create an nd-source.yaml manifest at the source root:

# nd-source.yaml
version: 1
paths:
  skills:
    - custom/path/to/skills
  agents:
    - my-agents
exclude:
  - vendor/

When an nd-source.yaml manifest is present, it overrides convention-based scanning entirely. nd falls back to convention-based discovery only when no manifest exists.

Publish your source

To share your asset source, push it to git:

cd my-assets
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial asset collection"
git remote add origin https://github.com/you/my-assets.git
git push -u origin main

Others can add it with:

nd source add you/my-assets
# or
nd source add https://github.com/you/my-assets.git

nd clones git sources to ~/.config/nd/sources/. Sync them with nd sync --source <id>.

Remove a source

nd source remove <source-id>

If assets from the source are currently deployed, nd asks whether to remove them, keep them as orphans, or cancel. nd prevents removal of the builtin source.

Warning: nd source remove <id> --yes skips the interactive prompt and removes all deployed assets from that source without confirmation. This is a destructive operation — use it only in scripts or when you are certain you want a clean removal.