Is there a way to update a variable in dir-locals instead of overriding it? Thinking about cider-clojure-cli-global-options
you could use eval
to run arbitrary forms
something like
((clojure-mode . ((eval . (add-to-list (make-local-variable 'cider-clojure-cli-aliases)
"dev")))))
Also you could use the C-u prefix before cider-jack-in to rewrite the default command line