**What steps will reproduce the problem?**

I generated repositories on two machines an then tried to sync them via ssh (by adding a "Remote server") but I ended up with a third (bare) repository next to my data on the remote server.

**What is the expected output? What do you see instead?**

The assistant should recognize the existing repository (especially the .git directory) and then start syncing only the needed files.

**What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?**

git-annex version: 4.20130324, Ubuntu 11.04

**Please provide any additional information below.**

[[!tag /design/assistant]]

> I have made it check for the .git directory and reuse the existing
> repository if it's there. [[done]] --[[Joey]]
> 
> (The comment about `git-annex-shell` is incorrect; it has nothing
> to do with this.)