Write the first policy

Begin with one reversible setting. A small policy makes the relationship between declared intent, observed GitHub state, and the resulting plan easy to inspect.

Create octoform.yml

octoform.yml

owner: your-account

defaults:
  merge:
    delete_branch_on_merge: true

Replace your-account with the login that owns the repositories. Octoform asks GitHub whether that login represents a personal account or an organization; the configuration does not duplicate that fact.

What this policy means

• delete_branch_on_merge must be enabled for selected managed repositories.
• Every omitted setting is unmanaged.
• The file does not disable absent features, remove rulesets, replace topics, or infer organization defaults.

Omission is a safety boundary, not a default value. false explicitly asks Octoform to keep a boolean setting disabled; omitting it asks Octoform to leave the setting alone.

Keep the first selection narrow

The policy uses defaults, so it can describe every selected repository. The first command will add --repo to restrict discovery and planning to one known repository without changing the reusable policy.

Choose a repository where enabling automatic branch deletion after merge is acceptable. The repository can already match the policy; a no-change plan is a valid and useful result.

Configuration failures are read-only

plan loads imports, validates the configuration shape, resolves the owner, and obtains GitHub state before producing changes. A syntax or validation error stops that command before any mutation.

Next step

Produce and interpret the first plan.