The writer command

dispat writer <manifest>... applies --set-version, --set and --link to each named manifest. Every edit ends as applied, skipped (a version deferring to something outside the file, which is normal and never fails the command) or missing (a dependency the manifest does not declare, which fails only under --strict). A path no writer covers always exits 1.

dispat scanner, dispat writer and dispat replacer expose the manifest libraries directly: the first prints what a folder's manifests declare, the second edits a declaration in place while preserving the file's formatting, and the third replaces literal text in any file at all. All three need no config file, no git repository and no release plan, so they work on any checkout. Positional paths resolve against --root, and --log-format json swaps each command's listing for one event per file.

The full guide, with worked examples and the format list, is Manifest tools.

Flags

Beside the global flags:

Flag	Default	Effect
--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-build		writer only: write the manifest's build counter where its format keeps one: CFBundleVersion, android:versionCode, CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION, Gradle's versionCode, a pubspec version's + suffix. A counter the file does not declare is not created (the pubspec suffix, part of the version scalar, is the one exception); Android and Gradle counters must be integers.
--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.
--drop-links		writer only: remove every local-link directive the named manifests carry, without being told the dependencies' names. Cannot be combined with --link.
--strict		Turns a tolerated finding into a failure. scanner, writer and replacer: a manifest that failed to parse, an edit the manifest does not declare, or a --replace that matched nothing.