hams refresh

Scan the machine and write the findings to .state/. Doesn’t install, uninstall, or change a single thing.

The reason this exists: anything you installed, removed, or changed outside hams is invisible to .state/. Next apply would diff against stale data and maybe do something weird. A quick refresh gets state back in sync with reality.

Usage


hams refresh [flags]

Examples


# Full sweep — every provider re-scans the machine
hams refresh
 
# Just Homebrew (you just did some manual brew uninstalls)
hams refresh --only=homebrew
 
# Noisy mode, see exactly what each provider probes
hams --debug refresh

When to use it

After manual installs. You ran brew install or pnpm add -g outside hams
Right after pulling from the store. The Hamsfiles changed, but .state/ is still from the last apply
Troubleshooting why apply wants to redo something. Refresh first, check what state looks like, then decide
After a big environment shift. System upgrade, Xcode CLT reinstall, etc.

hams apply already runs a refresh at the start, so in the normal flow you don’t need to run this by hand. It’s for “I want to look, but not touch” situations.

Refresh vs apply

	refresh	apply
Reads machine state	✓	✓
Writes `.state/` files	✓	✓
Installs, removes, or modifies resources	✗	✓
Needs sudo	✗	Depends on the provider

Short version: refresh looks, apply looks and acts.