Drift Detection

Drift detection compares the actual state of your local workspace against the desired state defined by the workspace revision.

Types of drift

Drift type	Description
Local modification	A generated file was edited locally
Missing file	A generated file was deleted
Remote update	Workspace revision on the server is newer than local
Package update	A newer version exists for a selected package
Provider mismatch	Workspace expects a provider that is not rendered locally
Unknown file	A file in a Workloom-managed path is not owned by any package
Policy drift	Local config violates a workspace or org policy
Nested target drift	A monorepo sub-target is missing expected files

Checking drift

wl status

Shows a human-readable summary:

Workspace: Platform API
Workspace revision: local 41, remote 42

Drift:
  remote update available
  modified: .claude/skills/security-review/SKILL.md
  missing: .codex/config.toml

Suggested:
  wl pull
  wl restore .codex/config.toml

wl diff

Shows the exact content differences between local files and the expected rendered output.

wl sync --check

CI-safe drift check. No writes. Exits 0 if clean, non-zero if any drift is detected. Emits machine-readable diagnostics.

# In CI
wl sync --check || exit 1

Resolving drift

Action	Effect
wl pull	Fetch latest workspace revision and re-render
wl restore	Restore only Workloom-owned files to expected state
wl restore <path>	Restore a specific file
wl push	Publish local changes as a new package version

Local overrides

When a developer modifies a generated file, Workloom does not fight it. Instead, wl status reports the modification and offers options:

• Restore the server version
• Push the change as a new package version
• Keep the local override (it will be reported as drift until resolved)

Ownership tracking

Workloom tracks which package owns each generated file in .loom/state.json. The restore command uses this metadata to restore only files Workloom owns — it never deletes or overwrites unknown user files.