commit_docs: false is ignored — .planning/ files still committed to git

[AbdelrhmanHamouda]

GSD Version

1.21.0

Runtime

Claude Code

What happened?

With commit_docs set to false in .planning/config.json, GSD still commits .planning/ files to git. This happens across multiple workflows (executor, planner, researcher, synthesizer, etc.).

In my project there are 66 commits touching .planning/ — all made while commit_docs: false was set:

$ git log --all --oneline -- .planning/ | wc -l
      66

Example commits that should not have been made:

9cf0a41 docs(roadmap): add gap closure phase 31
360e9ba docs(phase-29): complete phase execution — verification passed
0fb9d54 docs: create milestone v2.1 roadmap (4 phases)
c2a3f5d docs: define milestone v2.1 requirements

This also causes a painful side effect: once .planning/ files are committed, they become tracked by git. .gitignore only applies to untracked files, so git add . re-stages them. Running git rm -r --cached .planning/ to untrack never sticks because GSD re-commits them on the next phase execution.

What did you expect?

With commit_docs: false, no .planning/ files should ever be committed to git. All agent workflows and gsd-tools.cjs commit should respect this setting completely.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run /gsd:settings and set commit_docs to false
2. Confirm .planning/config.json shows "commit_docs": false
3. Add .planning/ to .gitignore
4. Run /gsd:plan-phase followed by /gsd:execute-phase
5. Check git log --oneline -- .planning/ — commits to .planning/ files appear despite the setting

Relevant logs or error messages

# .planning/config.json
{
  "model_profile": "quality",
  "commit_docs": false,
  "workflow": {
    "research": true,
    "plan_check": true,
    "verifier": true,
    "auto_advance": false,
    "nyquist_validation": true
  },
  "git": {
    "branching_strategy": "none"
  }
}

# .gitignore entry
.planning/

# The gate exists in commands.cjs but is not effective:
# if (!config.commit_docs) {
#     const result = { committed: false, hash: null, reason: 'skipped_commit_docs_false' };
#     output(result, raw, 'skipped');
#     return;
# }
#
# All doc-committing agents route through gsd-tools.cjs commit
# (executor, planner, researcher, synthesizer), so the gate should work.
# Possible causes:
# - loadConfig(cwd) not resolving the correct config.json
# - Default commit_docs: true in core.cjs winning if config loading fails silently
# - Orchestrator commands bypassing gsd-tools.cjs commit entirely

[Tibsfox]

Hey @AbdelrhmanHamouda — we've been looking into this and can confirm it has two contributing causes.

Cause 1: isGitIgnored() detection failure — The isGitIgnored() function in gsd-tools.cjs was missing the --no-index flag on git check-ignore, which means it couldn't detect gitignore rules for files already tracked by git. PR #821 (fix/config-and-path-corrections) fixes this layer.

Cause 2: Direct git add .planning/ in workflows — Some workflow files (notably plan-phase.md and discuss-phase.md) use raw git add .planning/ in their auto-commit recovery paths, which bypasses the gsd-tools.cjs commit gate entirely. Even with commit_docs: false in config, these direct git commands don't check the config setting. This part isn't covered by our PR yet.

So the full fix needs both: the detection fix (PR #821) and conditional commit_docs checks in the workflow auto-commit paths. The detection fix restores one layer of defense, but the workflows need to respect the config flag too.

Thanks for the detailed report with the 66-commit evidence — that made it clear this is a systematic issue rather than a one-off. The fact that you set commit_docs: false explicitly and it was still ignored is a real friction point.

[0xLeathery]

test

[Tibsfox]

Quick status update — the commit_docs gate in commands.cjs (line 224) works correctly when commits go through gsd-tools.cjs commit. The remaining issue is that two workflow files bypass the gate with raw git add .planning/ commands:

• workflows/plan-phase.md:475 — auto-commit recovery path
• workflows/discuss-phase.md:631 — auto-commit recovery path

These need a commit_docs config check before the git add call. Confirming the bug is still present in the latest codebase for these two paths. Would be happy to put together a PR if that'd be helpful! 🙂

[trek-e]

This has been fixed in the current codebase:

1. isGitIgnored() now uses --no-index flag on git check-ignore (line 124 of core.cjs), so it correctly detects .gitignore rules even for tracked files.

2. Raw git add .planning/ calls in plan-phase.md and discuss-phase.md workflow auto-commit paths have been removed — all .planning/ commits now go through gsd-tools.cjs commit which respects the commit_docs gate.

3. cmdCommit() gate (line 225 of commands.cjs) correctly checks config.commit_docs and skips with reason: 'skipped_commit_docs_false'.

This issue should be closable.

[trek-e]

Status: Fixed in v1.22+

The commit_docs: false path has been fixed across all commit paths (commit 01c9115, PR #482) and the isGitIgnored check was updated with --no-index (commit 061dadf, PR #703). Additionally, the cmdCommit() function in commands.cjs properly checks config.commit_docs and returns early when false.

Please update to the latest version (npx get-shit-done-cc@latest) and retest. If the issue persists, it may be that workflows are using direct git add/commit instead of gsd-tools commit — please reopen with the specific workflow that's still committing.

[trek-e]

@glittercowboy This issue has been fixed in the current version. See my earlier comment for the specific fix commit. Recommend closing.

[trek-e]

@Solvely-Colin This issue appears resolved in the current version. See comments above for details. Recommend closing.