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Configure what gets injected into workspaces from Settings → Environments in your dashboard. There are four tabs: Variables, Files, Skills, and Warm Hooks.

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Variables

Key-value environment variables injected into workspaces at boot.
  • Scoped globally, per repository, or per repository set
  • Values are encrypted at rest
  • Paste .env-formatted blocks to batch add
  • Secrets can also be synced from Infisical or Doppler. Manual variables take priority over integration secrets

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Files

Configuration files placed inside workspaces.
  • Place files at ~/... (home directory) or ~/workspaces/... (alongside cloned repos)
  • Scoped globally, per repository, or per repository set
  • Max file size: 64 KB
  • Contents are encrypted at rest

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Skills

Install skills from the skills.sh directory into your workspaces.
  • Scoped globally, per repository, or per repository set
  • All applicable scopes are unioned when provisioning a workspace (global + repo + repo set)
  • Search by name or slug to find available skills
  • Enable or disable per scope

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Warm Hooks

Warm hooks are available on every plan.
Warm hooks run setup scripts ahead of time so workspaces provision instantly from a pre-warmed pool instead of waiting for dependency installs and builds.

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How it works

  1. Configure — set up warm hooks at the organization or repository level.
  2. Pre-warm — Replicas runs the hook commands inside a fresh workspace and snapshots the result.
  3. Pool — a set of pre-warmed workspaces is maintained per repository or repository set.
  4. Provision — when a user creates a workspace, Replicas assigns one from the warm pool.
  5. Boot — the workspace’s start hook (if any) still runs for session-specific initialization.

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Organization-level warm hooks

Configure from Settings → Warm Hooks:
  1. Add shell commands to run during pre-warming (e.g., dependency installs, asset builds).
  2. Set a timeout per command (default 5 minutes, max 15 minutes).
  3. Choose which repositories or repository sets the hook applies to.
Organization-level hooks run before repository-level hooks.

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Repository-level warm hooks

Add a warmHook field to your replicas.json or replicas.yaml file: 
{
  "warmHook": {
    "timeout": 300000,
    "commands": [
      "npm install",
      "npm run build"
    ]
  },
  "startHook": {
    "timeout": 300000,
    "commands": [
      "npm run dev"
    ]
  }
}
See Repository Configuration for the full file schema.

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Execution order

PhaseHookWhen it runs
Pre-warmOrganization warm hookDuring pool creation
Pre-warmRepository warm hook (warmHook)During pool creation, after org hook
BootStart hook (startHook)When the workspace is assigned to a user

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Warm pools

Warm pools keep pre-warmed workspaces ready per repository or repository set.
  • Default pool size is 5. Contact founders@replicas.dev to increase.
  • Replicas periodically reconciles pool levels.
  • Pools are automatically invalidated when environment variables or files change.