Aider has no admin console, so a team's policy lives in a shared .aider.conf.yml and on each engineer's machine. Agree six settings before engineers run it on shared repositories: git hooks, commit policy, repository config, confirmations, headless runs, and analytics.
When you need this
- Security asks how Aider is governed before a wider rollout.
- Aider's commits are bypassing your pre-commit hooks.
- Engineers clone outside repositories and run Aider in them.
- You plan to run Aider unattended in scripts or CI.
Evaluation criteria
Git hooks
Do Aider's commits pass the same checks as everyone else's?
Look forgit-commit-verify: true in the shared config. By default Aider commits with --no-verify, and one team turned auto-commits off for that reason.
Commit policy
How should Aider's changes land in history?
Look forAuto-commits on, so each edit can be undone, with a branch per task and a squash before review. Aider commits your own pending edits separately before it edits, and its commits carry a Co-authored-by trailer by default.
Repository config
Can a cloned repository change how Aider behaves?
Look forA rule to read .aider.conf.yml before running Aider in any outside repository. Aider loads it from the git root automatically, it can set lint and test commands, and a June 2026 report shows those commands running at startup without confirmation.
Confirmations
What runs without a prompt?
Look for--yes-always only in isolated automation. Interactively, Aider asks before running the shell commands it suggests, and --no-suggest-shell-commands stops the suggestions.
Headless runs
Will your automation notice a failed run?
Look forA check of tests and changed files after every --message run. Two teams report that Aider exits with code 0 after fatal API errors, so a run that changed nothing still reads as a success.
Analytics and updates
What leaves the machine besides model traffic?
Look foraider --analytics-disable on each machine if your policy requires it. Analytics never include code or prompts, and Aider asks a random subset of users to opt in. Set --no-check-update with a pinned version so engineers do not upgrade one by one.
Questions to ask vendors
- Who owns the shared .aider.conf.yml, and how is it distributed to each machine?
- Which repositories may engineers run Aider in, and how do we treat outside clones?
- How will we hear about security reports on Aider, with no vendor support channel?
- Which files belong in .aiderignore so Aider never sends them to a model?
Red flags
- Pre-commit hooks that Aider's commits silently skip.
- --yes-always on a machine with production credentials.
- Aider run in freshly cloned outside repositories without reading their config.
- Unattended runs judged by exit code alone.
Products in this piece
Sources
- Official documentation
- 7
- Public source
- 4
- Aider docs: Options reference
- Aider docs: YAML config file
- Aider docs: Git integration
- Aider docs: Analytics
- Aider privacy policy
- Aider docs: Scripting aider
- Aider docs: FAQ
- GitHub issue #3583: Aider using no-verify by default for commits (Mar 20, 2025)
- GitHub issue #5254: an untrusted repository's .aider.conf.yml runs test and lint commands at startup (Jun 12, 2026)
- GitHub issue #5552: Aider exits with code 0 on fatal API connection errors (Aug 11, 2026)
- GitHub issue #2189: rolling Aider out to a team behind an OpenAI-compatible proxy (Oct 29, 2024; not a Signals source)