The autowriter command

Run dispat autowriter to apply dispat writer across a selection of packages instead of a list of files. The --set-version, --set, and --link flags mean exactly what they mean there. dispat finds the manifests by scanning each covered package that the plan and the window pick.

You can pass the same selection and window flags as the step commands. The --package, --space, --group, --since, and --consumers flags all read the same.

Pass --manifests root (the default) to edit the manifests sitting in each package folder. Pass --manifests all to edit every manifest under it. This leaves any manifest belonging to another package to that package.

You can write a range as {version} to resolve to the planned version of the package the edit names. Pass --set-version {version} to write the covered package's own planned version to its root manifests alone.

Pass --only-updated to drop every edit naming a package this run does not update. Pass --strict to fail on an edit that matches no manifest anywhere. This is the cross-package reading of missing, because an edit absent from one manifest out of twenty is the ordinary case.

Pass --set-local, --link-local, or --unlink-local to derive the edits instead of taking them. dispat finds every dependency a manifest declares that names another package in the workspace. It reconciles the range to that package's version (spelled by --range), writes its local folder redirect, or removes that redirect.

A dependency named by --set or --link keeps what you typed on the command line. Derived links skip package.json because npm refuses an override for a directly declared dependency. No release removes a local link, so run --unlink-local to remove them before you publish.

In go.mod files, the link half also reaches an // indirect require. Go honours replace only in the main module's go.mod file, so a provider reached only through another module still needs a redirect from the consumer's own file. The --set-local flag leaves those requires as it found them. The version there belongs to the toolchain.

Do not run go work sync or go mod tidy while links are in place. Both commands drop the go.sum entries a local redirect makes redundant. Unlinking needs those entries back.

A covered package with no writable manifest is a no-op. The command fails if your selection contains no packages with a writable manifest. Read Editing across the monorepo for worked examples of the whole command.

Flags

You can use the global flags alongside these options:

Flag	Default	Effect
--package, -p		Narrows package-selecting commands (release, status, run, preview, changelog, autoversion, autowriter, autoreplacer, commit, github, compute) to the named packages. You can repeat this comma-separated flag, which matches case-insensitively and accepts * globs (-p '*' selects every package). Read Choosing the packages for more details.
--space, -s		Narrows the same eleven commands to every package in the named spaces. It uses the same spellings, and a standalone package belongs to no space. Read Choosing the packages for more details.
--group, -g		Narrows the same eleven commands to every package in the named versioning groups using the same spellings. A group is a versionGroups entry or a space that versions as one, so it can cross spaces. Read Choosing the packages for more details.
--since		Instructs the same seven commands to cover the packages addressed by commits since a git revision, instead of the release window. Pass all to cover every package. Read the run command for more details.
--consumers		Instructs the same seven commands to additionally cover every package that transitively depends on a selected one. Read the run command for more details.
--on-error	skip	Tells every sweeping command (run, autowriter, autoreplacer, changelog, autoversion, commit, github) what a failed package does to its dependents. Pass skip to skip them transitively, or continue to process them. The command exits 1 on any failure either way.
--set-version		Tells writer and autowriter to rewrite the manifest's own version field. Pass {version} to autowriter to write the covered package's planned version. This touches only its root manifests.
--set		Tells writer and autowriter to set one dependency's declared range. Format this as [kind:]name=range and repeat the flag as needed. For autowriter, writing {version} in the range inserts the planned version of the package the edit names.
--link		Tells writer and autowriter to point a dependency at a local folder. Format this repeatable flag as name=path. Pass an empty path to remove the redirect.
--set-local		Tells autowriter to set every declared workspace dependency to its provider's version. The --range flag spells this version.
--link-local		Tells autowriter to point every declared workspace dependency at its folder. In go.mod files, this includes dependencies named only by an // indirect require. You cannot combine --link-local with --unlink-local.
--unlink-local		Tells autowriter to remove the local folder redirects that --link-local writes. No release removes these automatically. Run this command before you publish.
--range	from config	Tells autoversion and autowriter to override the autoVersion.range write policy. This policy defines how a reconciled range is spelled (caret, tilde, exact, a {version} template, or a literal). For autowriter, this spells the version that --set-local derives.
--manifests	root here	Tells autoversion and autowriter which of a package's manifests to rewrite. Pass root to rewrite the ones in the package folder, or all to rewrite every manifest under it. The autoversion command also accepts none to turn off its parsing strategy, and takes its default from the config; autowriter reads no config for this and always defaults to root.
--only-updated		Tells autoversion and autowriter to rewrite only the declarations naming a package this run updates. This leaves a range alone if it fell behind a provider released earlier.
--sync-lock	true	Tells autoversion and autowriter to run the syncLock scripts for packages whose manifests changed. Pass --sync-lock=false to skip them.
--strict		Turns a tolerated finding into a failure. For autowriter, this fails the command if an edit matches no manifest anywhere. Read Editing across the monorepo for more details.