Parent-folder repository discovery

Add Local Repository can scan a chosen parent folder, preview every safely detected Git working tree, and add the reviewed result in one action. This is a local discovery aid for an existing workspace; it does not initialize, clone, move, or modify repositories while scanning.

Behavior and configuration

Choose Auto-detect repositories…, select one directory, and wait for the deterministic breadth-first scan. The preview shows paths relative to the selected folder and changes the confirmation label to the number of repositories found. Confirming routes the exact resolved paths through the ordinary multi-repository registration flow and selects the first returned repository.

The scanner uses fixed safe defaults: at most six descendant levels, 100 repositories, 5,000 opened directories, 20,000 inspected entries overall, and 2,000 entries in one directory. It skips generated and dependency locations such as .git, node_modules, build, dist, out, vendor, and virtual environment directories. Reaching any bound produces an explicit truncated result rather than implying that the folder was fully searched. If an entry limit or a partial directory-read error hides the .git entry, the scanner performs one direct marker lookup before descending. This preserves repository boundaries without reading the remaining entries. A missing marker permits partial discovery; a marker-inspection error stops descent and keeps the result marked as truncated.

Persistence

The chosen root, discovery results, truncation flag, and scan errors are dialog state only. Changing the manual path or starting another selection invalidates the prior request, and a late result cannot replace the newer state. Only the normal repository registration performed after confirmation is persisted; the scanner creates no background index or watched-folder setting.

Already registered working trees resolve to their existing repository entries. New validated roots enter the same repositories store and remote/account loading path as a repository added individually.

Failure modes and recovery

An unreadable selected root produces an error and no preview. An unreadable descendant, per-directory cap, total cap, repository cap, or depth cap marks the otherwise usable result as truncated. The dialog tells the user to add the found repositories and scan a narrower folder to find more.

Malformed, bare, unsafe, or otherwise rejected Git markers are treated as repository boundaries but are not returned. The scanner does not descend through them in search of nested repositories. If no valid roots are found, confirmation stays disabled.

Security considerations

The selected root must be an ordinary directory. Traversal never follows symbolic links or Windows junctions, and linked .git markers are not accepted as proof of a repository. A linked .git marker still stops traversal, so its folder is not searched for nested repositories or passed to Git for validation. Every ordinary candidate marker is revalidated through Git; only a regular working tree whose reported top-level directory is exactly the candidate path is returned.

Stopping at every Git marker prevents a malformed, bare, or unexpectedly large working tree from becoming a new traversal root. Directory, entry, depth, and result limits bound resource use. Scanning is read-only and does not invoke repository hooks or provider authentication.

Verification

git/find-repositories-test.ts creates real repositories and proves stable discovery, heavy-directory and nested-worktree exclusion, depth/repository bounds, Windows .git casing, link/junction refusal, root-read failure, and partial results for unreadable descendants. A linked .git marker regression also verifies that neither the candidate nor its nested repositories are validated or returned. add-existing-repository-test.tsx covers the folder picker, preview, exact bulk registration, truncation guidance, empty-state disablement, picker/scan errors, and stale-request protection. Scanner regressions also cover real markers hidden by per-directory and total entry limits, hidden linked markers, platform-specific marker casing, and partial directory-read errors while retaining useful results from unmarked folders.