update

Re-scan files, infer new fields, and update the schema.

Usage

mdvs update [path] [--dry-run]
mdvs update [path] reinfer [fields..] [flags]

Flags

Global flags (-o, -v, --logs) are described in Configuration.

What it does

update re-scans the directory using the existing [scan] config, infers types and path patterns from the current files, and merges the results into mdvs.toml. Unlike init, it preserves all existing configuration — only the [fields] section changes.

Default mode

By default, update only discovers new fields — fields that appear in frontmatter but aren’t yet in mdvs.toml (either as [[fields.field]] entries or in the ignore list). Existing fields are protected: their types, allowed/required patterns, nullable flags, and constraints don’t change.

Fields that disappear (no longer in any file) are kept in mdvs.toml by default. This is conservative — removing a field from the schema is an explicit action.

reinfer subcommand

Re-infer field definitions from scratch. This is a subcommand of update with its own flags:

Reinfer specific fields:

mdvs update example_kb reinfer drift_rate priority

The named fields are removed from mdvs.toml and re-inferred from scratch, as if they’d never been seen. All other fields stay protected. Fails if a named field isn’t in mdvs.toml.

Without --with, reinfer applies the default heuristic (categorical detection — see Constraints). Use --with to override:

# Force categorical (skip heuristic threshold)
mdvs update example_kb reinfer title --with=categorical

# Infer min/max from observed numeric values
mdvs update example_kb reinfer sample_count --with=range

# Strip all constraints
mdvs update example_kb reinfer status --with=none

--with takes a comma-separated list. Incompatible kinds (e.g., range,categorical on the same field) are rejected at parse time. --with=none cannot be combined with other kinds. --with requires named fields.

Reinfer all fields:

mdvs update example_kb reinfer

When no fields are specified, all [[fields.field]] entries are removed and rebuilt from the current files. Fields that no longer exist in any file are reported as removed.

All other config sections ([scan], [embedding_model], [chunking], [search], [update]) are preserved. This is the key difference from init --force, which rewrites the entire mdvs.toml.

Output

Compact (default)

When the schema is already up to date:

Scanned 43 files — no changes (37 unchanged) (dry run)

When new fields are discovered, they appear in an “Added” section with the same key-value format as init:

Scanned 44 files — 1 field(s) changed (37 unchanged) (dry run)

Added (1):
┌ category ────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ type                     │ String                                            │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ files                    │ 3 out of 44                                       │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nullable                 │ false                                             │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ required                 │ (none)                                            │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ allowed                  │ projects/alpha/notes/**                           │
└──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When reinfer detects a type change, the “Changed” section shows old and new values with an arrow:

Scanned 43 files — 1 field(s) changed (36 unchanged)

Changed (1):
┌ drift_rate ──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ type                     │ Float → String                                    │
└──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When a reinferred field no longer exists in any file:

Scanned 43 files — 1 field(s) changed (36 unchanged)

Removed (1):
┌ category ────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ previously allowed       │ projects/alpha/notes/**                           │
└──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Verbose (-v)

Verbose output adds pipeline timing lines before the result:

Read config: example_kb/mdvs.toml (2ms)
Scan: 44 files (3ms)
Infer: 38 field(s) (0ms)
Write config: example_kb/mdvs.toml (1ms)
Scanned 44 files — 1 field(s) changed (37 unchanged)

Added (1):
┌ category ────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ type                     │ String                                            │
...

The field tables are identical in both modes — verbose only adds the step lines showing processing times.

Exit codes

Errors