Repo states

keel is state-aware: before writing anything it detects whether the target directory already exists locally and whether the remote already exists, then branches accordingly. It is never just a file dump.

The four-state matrix

Local	Remote	Behavior
absent	absent	Fresh scaffold — atomic write, git init, first commit, and (if requested) create + push the remote.
present	absent	Overlay onto the existing tree (skip-existing), then optionally create + push the remote.
absent	present	Clone-then-overlay — clone the remote, overlay the rendered files on top, commit.
present	present	Overlay, then stop. keel overlays locally but, with both sides already carrying history, refuses to reconcile for you — it prints the git fetch / merge / push steps to run yourself.

keel never force-pushes. When both local and remote have history, it hands reconciliation back to you rather than overwriting either side.

Skip-existing vs --overwrite

When overlaying onto a directory that already has files, the default is skip-existing: keel writes the files that aren't there yet and leaves any existing file untouched. Pass --overwrite to replace existing files with the freshly rendered versions instead.

Either way, keel never deletes a file it didn't write. Removing capabilities is your call, not keel's.

To re-apply evolved module templates to a repo keel already scaffolded — as opposed to overlaying a fresh recipe — use keel update, which is hash-aware and preserves your edits.