Dirty-tree gate refuses to run over copperhead's own .copperhead/runs/ session log #131

What happened

In a repository the user set up by hand (git init, then a commit), the interactive shell refuses to run on its own session log.

The shell opens a session log at .copperhead/runs/repl-<ts>.log before the first turn (repl.ts:325). A hand-made repository has no .gitignore entry for .copperhead/runs/, so git status now reports ?? .copperhead/. The dirty-tree gate (git.ts, gitPreflight) counts that as uncommitted work and refuses the run.

The result is a dead end on a repository that was clean a second earlier: copperhead tells you to commit or stash work that is not yours, over a file copperhead itself just wrote. The three suggested fixes all miss, because none of them is the actual problem:

• git add -A && git commit commits copperhead's transcripts into project history
• git stash stashes them, and the next launch recreates them
• --allow-dirty works, but it silently disables the protection for the user's real work too

Expected: copperhead's own audit trail is not the user's uncommitted work, so it should not count toward the dirty-tree gate. restore() already carries .copperhead/runs/ across a rollback rather than resetting it, so excluding it costs nothing.

Affects do, sync, and the interactive shell. create is unaffected: it runs with allowDirty: true and bootstraps .gitignore itself.

Steps to reproduce

1. mkdir board && cd board
2. printf '# Brief\n\nA simple LED blinker board.\n' > brief.md
3. git init && git add -A && git commit -m "initial commit"
4. copperhead            # or: copperhead do "add a resistor"
5. type any request at the prompt

Step 4 creates .copperhead/. Step 5 refuses.

Output

$ git status --porcelain     # after step 3
$                            # clean

$ copperhead
# ... shell opens, writes .copperhead/runs/repl-<ts>.log

$ git status --porcelain     # copperhead's own file, nothing of the user's
?? .copperhead/

# at the prompt:
working tree is dirty; copperhead refuses to run on uncommitted changes by default

why it failed: a rollback hard-resets to the pre-run snapshot, which would silently destroy your uncommitted work
to fix:
  1. git add -A && git commit — to keep your changes (recommended)
  2. git stash — to set them aside for now
  3. or rerun with --allow-dirty to let copperhead preserve them via "git stash create"

Related: the ignore entry is never topped up

GIT_ADD_EXCLUDES in git.ts currently holds only .history/, so no copperhead commit adds .copperhead/runs/ to a repository that lacks it. AC-4.3 requires that entry. In a hand-made repository, a run that reaches commitAll (git add -A) therefore sweeps the transcripts into project history.

Which command

other or not command-specific (do, sync, and the interactive shell)

Model backend

Not applicable: the gate fires before the provider is constructed.

copperhead version

0.9.0

Node, KiCad, and OS

node v24.18.0, kicad-cli 10.0.4, Linux 6.6.6 (Pop!_OS)