update

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

Usage

mdvs update [path] [flags]

Flags

--reinfer and --reinfer-all cannot be used together.

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, and nullable flags 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

Re-infer one or more specific fields. 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.

mdvs update example_kb --reinfer drift_rate --reinfer priority

Fails if a named field isn’t in mdvs.toml.

--reinfer-all

Re-infer every field from scratch. 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 (dry run)

When new fields are discovered:

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

╭────────────────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────╮
│ "category"             │ added             │ String            │             │
╰────────────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┴─────────────╯

When --reinfer detects a type change:

Scanned 44 files — 2 field(s) changed (dry run)

╭────────────────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────╮
│ "category"             │ added             │ String            │             │
╰────────────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┴─────────────╯
╭───────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────╮
│ "drift_rate"                              │ type                             │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────╯

When a reinferred field no longer exists:

Scanned 43 files — 1 field(s) changed (dry run)

╭────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────╮
│ "category"                             │ removed                             │
╰────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────╯

Verbose (-v)

Added fields show the inferred path patterns:

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

╭─────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────────╮
│ "category"                  │ added                 │ String                 │
├─────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────┴────────────────────────┤
│   found in:                                                                  │
│     - "projects/alpha/notes/**"                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Changed fields show old and new values for each aspect that differs:

╭────────────────────────┬──────────────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────╮
│ field                  │ aspect           │ old            │ new             │
│ "drift_rate"           │ type             │ Float          │ String          │
╰────────────────────────┴──────────────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────╯

Removed fields show where they were previously allowed:

╭──────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────╮
│ "category"                   │ removed                   │                   │
├──────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────┤
│   previously in:                                                             │
│     - "projects/**"                                                          │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Verbose output also shows the pipeline steps before the result (Read config, Scan, Infer, Write config, etc.).

Exit codes

Errors