The autowriter command

dispat autowriter is dispat writer pointed at a selection instead of a list of files: --set-version, --set and --link mean exactly what they mean there, but the manifests are found by scanning each covered package and the packages are the ones the plan and the window pick. It takes the same selection and window flags as the step commands, so --package, --space, --group, --since and --consumers all read the same.

--manifests root (the default) edits the manifests sitting in each package folder, --manifests all every manifest under it, leaving any that belongs to another package to that package. A range may be written as {version}, which resolves to the planned version of the package the edit names, and --set-version {version} to the covered package's own, written to its root manifests alone. --only-updated drops every edit naming a package this run does not update, and --strict fails on an edit that matched no manifest anywhere, which is the cross-package reading of missing: an edit absent from one manifest of twenty is the ordinary case.

--set-local, --link-local and --unlink-local derive the edits instead of taking them: every dependency a manifest declares that names another package in the workspace has its range reconciled to that package's version (spelled by --range), its local folder redirect written, or that redirect removed. A dependency named by --set or --link keeps what the command line said. Derived links skip package.json, since npm refuses an override for a directly declared dependency, and a local link must be removed with --unlink-local before publishing because no release removes one.

In go.mod the link half also reaches an // indirect require, because Go honours replace in the main module's go.mod alone: a provider reached only through another module still has to be redirected from the consumer's own file. --set-local leaves those requires as it found them: the version there belongs to the toolchain. Do not run go work sync or go mod tidy while links are in place: both drop the go.sum entries a local redirect makes redundant, and unlinking needs them back.

A covered package with no manifest anything can write is a no-op; a selection in which none of them has one is an error. The whole command, with worked examples, is in Editing across the monorepo.

Flags

Beside the global flags:

Flag	Default	Effect
--package, -p		Every package-selecting command (release, status, run, preview, changelog, autoversion, autowriter, autoreplacer, commit, github, compute): narrow to the named packages. Repeatable and comma-separated, matched case-insensitively, * globs (-p '*' is every package); see Choosing the packages.
--space, -s		The same eleven commands: narrow to every package of the named spaces, with the same spellings. A standalone package belongs to no space; see Choosing the packages.
--group, -g		The same eleven commands: narrow to every package of the named versioning groups, with the same spellings. A group is a versionGroups entry or a space that versions as one, so it may cross spaces; see Choosing the packages.
--since		The same seven commands: cover the packages the commits since a git revision address, instead of the release window. all covers every package; see the run command.
--consumers		The same seven commands: additionally cover every package that transitively depends on a selected one; see the run command.
--on-error	skip	Every sweeping command (run, autowriter, autoreplacer, changelog, autoversion, commit, github): what a failed package does to its dependents, skip (transitive) or continue. Either way the command exits 1 on any failure.
--set-version		writer and autowriter: rewrite the manifest's own version field. For autowriter, {version} writes the covered package's planned version, and only its root manifests are touched.
--set		writer and autowriter: set one dependency's declared range, [kind:]name=range; repeatable. For autowriter, {version} in the range is the planned version of the package the edit names.
--link		writer and autowriter: point a dependency at a local folder, name=path; an empty path removes the redirect. Repeatable.
--set-local		autowriter only: set every declared workspace dependency to its provider's version, spelled by --range.
--link-local		autowriter only: point every declared workspace dependency at its folder, plus, in go.mod, the ones only an // indirect require names. The two cannot be combined with --unlink-local.
--unlink-local		autowriter only: remove the local folder redirects --link-local writes. No release removes one, so run this before publishing.
--range	from config	autoversion and autowriter: override the autoVersion.range write policy, which is how a reconciled range is spelled (caret, tilde, exact, a {version} template, or a literal). For autowriter it spells what --set-local derives.
--manifests	from config	autoversion and autowriter: which of a package's manifests are rewritten, root (the ones in the package folder) or all (every manifest under it). autoversion also takes none, which turns its parsing strategy off.
--only-updated		autoversion and autowriter: rewrite only the declarations naming a package this run updates, leaving a range that had fallen behind a provider released earlier as it is.
--sync-lock	true	autoversion and autowriter: run the syncLock scripts for packages whose manifests changed; --sync-lock=false skips them.
--strict		Turns a tolerated finding into a failure. autowriter: an edit that matched no manifest anywhere; see Editing across the monorepo.