AIDC wont initialize if .devcontainer already exists

[anantshri]

$ aidc claude
[aidc] error: refusing to overwrite existing file: <PATH>/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

looks like we might want to rename and .devcontainer folder for aidc usage.

[ai-anant]

🤖 Watchdog analysis

Root cause

aidc claude (and any tool command) auto-bootstraps the workspace: run_tool → ensure_container_running → ensure_workspace_ready → cmd_init when .ai-container/project.env is absent. cmd_init calls aidc::check_init_conflicts() (lib/aidc.sh), which iterated AIDC_MANAGED_PATHS (.devcontainer/Dockerfile, .devcontainer/compose.yaml, .devcontainer/devcontainer.json, …) and hard-aborted with:

[aidc] error: refusing to overwrite existing file: <PATH>/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

So any repo that already ships its own .devcontainer/ could never be initialized by aidc — the exact failure you hit. There was no way forward other than manually deleting/moving the existing devcontainer.

Existing PR status

No existing PR addressed this issue when checked (the 7 open PRs #14–#20 all target other issues: #7–#13). A new PR has been opened:

PR: #21 — "fix: move pre-existing .devcontainer aside instead of refusing to init" (Fixes #6)

What the fix does

aidc::check_init_conflicts() no longer dies. When a pre-existing aidc-managed path is found under a top-level dir aidc scaffolds wholesale, it moves the whole dir aside and proceeds:

• .devcontainer/ → .devcontainer.aidc-backup (or .devcontainer.aidc-backup.1, .2, … on collision)
• .cursor/ (when it contains rules/00-core-logics.mdc) → .cursor.aidc-backup
• Prints a restore hint: mv .devcontainer.aidc-backup .devcontainer
• User content is renamed, never deleted; aidc::ensure_local_git_excludes() now also ignores .devcontainer.aidc-backup*/ so the backup doesn't pollute git status

Behavior matrix:

Pre-existing state	Before	After
.devcontainer/devcontainer.json (typical VS Code devcontainer)	error: refusing to overwrite	moved to .devcontainer.aidc-backup, scaffold proceeds
.cursor/rules/00-core-logics.mdc	error: refusing to overwrite	.cursor moved to .cursor.aidc-backup, scaffold proceeds
.cursor/rules/my-user-rule.md (no aidc-managed path)	scaffold proceeds	unchanged — user rule kept alongside aidc's 00-core-logics.mdc
Already initialized (.ai-container/project.env present)	no-op	no-op (re-init stays idempotent)

Fix guidance (if you'd rather patch manually)

Edit aidc::check_init_conflicts() in lib/aidc.sh (currently ~line 1468) so that instead of aidc::die "refusing to overwrite existing file: ..." it moves the conflicting top-level dir (.devcontainer, .cursor) to <dir>.aidc-backup (pick a free name with a numeric suffix loop) and warns with a restore hint. Also add ".devcontainer.aidc-backup*/" to the pattern list in aidc::ensure_local_git_excludes() (~line 1518). PR #21 already contains exactly this.

PR status

• New PR opened: fix: move pre-existing .devcontainer aside instead of refusing to init #21 (Fixes AIDC wont initialize if .devcontainer already exists #6)
• Not covered by any pre-existing PR (checked all open PRs + issue timeline cross-references).

Verification

• bash -n under bash 3.2.57 (project floor) — clean
• shellcheck --severity=warning on bin/aidc, lib/aidc.sh, all *.sh (mirrors shellcheck.yml) — clean
• .github/scripts/bash-compat-check.sh under bash 3.2 — parse + smoke OK
• tests/resolve-oauth-token.test.sh — 7/7 pass; .github/scripts/test-bootstrap-state.sh — 9/9 pass
• End-to-end simulation with a real aidc init: repo with pre-existing .devcontainer/devcontainer.json + scripts/postCreate.sh and a user cursor rule → init succeeds, originals preserved in .devcontainer.aidc-backup, user cursor rule untouched; collision case lands in .devcontainer.aidc-backup.1; second aidc init over an initialized repo stays a clean no-op