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name: remotes-and-cache description: "Configure DVC remotes and cache behavior, move data with push/pull/fetch/gc, and diagnose remote backend dependency or configuration failures safely." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: Apache 2.0

DVC Remotes and Cache

Use this sub-skill when a user asks how to configure DVC data remotes, choose remote URL schemes, push/pull/fetch tracked data, inspect cloud status, tune cache storage/link behavior, or troubleshoot missing optional remote backends.

Route Here When

• The task mentions dvc remote add, remote modify, remote default, remote list, remote remove, or remote rename.
• The user needs safe guidance for dvc push, dvc pull, dvc fetch, dvc status -c, dvc gc, dvc cache dir, cache.type, or dvc unprotect.
• The user is diagnosing RemoteMissingDepsError, credential/auth issues, unsupported URL schemes, no default remote, missing cache objects, or link/relink behavior.
• The workflow uses dvc import-url, dvc get, dvc get-url, dvc list-url, or dvc artifacts get specifically because data is transferred through a remote or external URL.

Route Elsewhere

• For dvc add, stages, dvc repro, pipeline outputs, or .dvc/dvc.yaml authoring that does not require remote/cache decisions, use the data-and-pipelines sub-skill.
• For Python API access such as dvc.api.open(), dvc.api.get_url(), Repo.get(), or Artifacts.get(), route to python-api after using this sub-skill only to identify remote/cache settings.
• Do not run real cloud/network transfers, credential prompts, or native repo remote tests from this skill. Prefer help output, config inspection, local filesystem remotes, and no-network diagnostics.

Core Workflow

1. Identify whether the user needs a local filesystem remote, HTTP(S) URL, cloud/object-store backend, SSH/WebDAV/HDFS backend, or a remote://name/path reference layered on an existing remote.
2. Read references/remote-workflows.md for safe command recipes and validation commands before proposing any push, pull, fetch, status -c, gc -c, import-url --to-remote, or URL-transfer command.
3. Read references/configuration.md before editing config levels, remote.<name>.* options, cache.dir, cache.type, cache.shared, or protected-link behavior.
4. Run python scripts/check_remote_support.py --scheme <scheme> when optional backend availability is unclear; it inspects local Python distribution/import availability only and performs no network I/O.
5. Use references/troubleshooting.md to map symptoms to safe checks and fixes, especially for missing extras, credentials, no default remote, unsupported URL schemes, missing cache, and link/relink issues.

Safe Defaults

• Prefer local filesystem remotes for examples: dvc remote add -d localremote /path/to/dvc-remote followed by dvc remote list and dvc status -c.
• Treat dvc push, dvc pull, dvc fetch, dvc gc -c, cloud import-url, get-url, and list-url as potentially network/credential operations unless the remote URL is local.
• Do not recommend dvc[all] unless the user explicitly needs multiple backends; map a missing backend to the narrow extra such as dvc[s3], dvc[gs], dvc[azure], dvc[ssh], dvc[webdav], or dvc[webhdfs].
• Use --local for credentials and machine-specific paths so secrets stay in .dvc/config.local; use project config for shareable remote names and non-secret URLs.
• For destructive cleanup, prefer dvc gc --dry first and explain that dvc gc -c can remove remote objects in addition to local cache objects.

Evidence Base

This sub-skill is distilled from DVC command parsers and schemas for remote, config, cache, push/pull/fetch/status, gc, get, get-url, import-url, list-url, artifacts get, unprotect, config schema validation, filesystem resolution, README optional-extra guidance, and remote/cache tests. Runtime guidance is self-contained and does not require reopening those source files.