---
title: Presets
description: Five kinds of project, and why a preset leaves your config file short.
---

`loop init` writes `loop.config.yaml` from a preset, and a preset is a set of **defaults**, not a template to
fill in. Everything the preset already says is left out of the file it writes, so the config diff a reviewer
reads shows what *this* project decided differently — and nothing else.

```bash
npx ak-harness loop init --preset monorepo
npx ak-harness loop init --dry-run          # print what it would write
```

| Preset | Shapes it assumes |
|---|---|
| `web-app` | An app with a build and a test suite, a base branch, CI as the gate |
| `library` | A package with a strict suite and a changelog; documentation matters more than deploys |
| `monorepo` | Many packages: layers are worth drawing, and a layer's own test closes an issue |
| `data-pipeline` | Long-running jobs, fixtures, verification that is not "run the tests" |
| `mobile` | A build that is slow enough that the cheap check before the expensive review matters most |

The preset sits **below every layer** as `extends:`: anything the project, team or machine states wins over it.

## What `loop init` asks

Only what a preset cannot answer:

- the repository (`owner/name`) and the project name;
- the tracker team key and workspace;
- whose queue this machine drains.

Everything else has a default that is right often enough to be a default. `--global` also creates
`~/.agentskit/harness.yaml` when it does not exist — the providers, binaries and channels that belong to the
machine rather than to any one project.

## Growing out of a preset

The two knobs worth turning first both raise the bar rather than the spend:

```yaml
dod:
  items:
    - { id: tests, description: the suite is green, kind: command, command: [pnpm, test] }

delivery:
  review:
    minSeverity: med        # nit < med < high < blocker
```

And the one worth turning when a monorepo starts to hurt:

```yaml
layers:
  - id: L2-runtime
    label: 'layer:L2'
    paths: ['packages/runtime/**']
    verify: pnpm test packages/runtime
```

After that, read the [configuration reference](/docs/reference/configuration): it is generated from the schema,
so it is never ahead of or behind the code.