From dfb5a478c7b97de217c54602e702bfb8b3bf6599 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "paseo-bot[bot]" <266920839+paseo-bot[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:06:43 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix(server): keep the Git-ignore ancestor walk for symlinked
 entries

A symlink resolves to a path whose ancestors were never checked during
traversal, so a link into an ignored directory was discovered. Named
children keep the single-entry check.
---
 .../src/utils/directory-suggestions.test.ts   | 20 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.ts | 13 ++++++++----
 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.test.ts b/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.test.ts
index 57b06602e2..9611ae7732 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.test.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.test.ts
@@ -170,6 +170,26 @@ describe("searchDirectoryEntries", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it.skipIf(isWindows)(
+    "prunes a symlink whose target is inside a Git-ignored directory",
+    async () => {
+      initGitRepo(searchRoot, "generated/\n");
+      mkdirSync(path.join(searchRoot, "generated", "output"), { recursive: true });
+      symlinkSync(path.join(searchRoot, "generated", "output"), path.join(searchRoot, "linked"));
+
+      await expect(
+        searchDirectoryEntries({
+          root: searchRoot,
+          query: "linked",
+          pathFormat: "relative",
+          includeFiles: false,
+          includeDirectories: true,
+          respectGitIgnore: true,
+        }),
+      ).resolves.toEqual([]);
+    },
+  );
+
   it("configures raw blank queries independently from explicit root aliases", async () => {
     const rootEntries = [
       { path: "projects", kind: "directory" as const },
diff --git a/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.ts b/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.ts
index ee673ded22..35e8f5154b 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/utils/directory-suggestions.ts
@@ -337,10 +337,7 @@ function staysInsideRoot(entry: ChildEntry, root: string): boolean {
 }
 
 function shouldDiscover(entry: ChildEntry, input: SearchInput): boolean {
-  // Traversal only descends through entries that already passed this check, so every ancestor
-  // is known discoverable and only the entry itself can be newly ignored. Walking the ancestor
-  // chain here would re-derive that answer once per level, for every entry scanned.
-  if (input.gitIgnoredPaths.has(entry.resolvedPath)) return false;
+  if (isNewlyGitIgnored(entry, input)) return false;
   if (entry.kind === "file") {
     return input.includeFiles && !entry.name.startsWith(".");
   }
@@ -349,6 +346,14 @@ function shouldDiscover(entry: ChildEntry, input: SearchInput): boolean {
   return input.hiddenDirectoryNames.has(entry.name);
 }
 
+// Traversal only descends through entries that already passed this check, so every ancestor of
+// a named child is known discoverable and only the entry itself can be newly ignored. A symlink
+// resolves to a path with different ancestors, so it still needs the full walk.
+function isNewlyGitIgnored(entry: ChildEntry, input: SearchInput): boolean {
+  if (entry.viaSymlink) return isGitIgnoredPath(entry.resolvedPath, input);
+  return input.gitIgnoredPaths.has(entry.resolvedPath);
+}
+
 function isGitIgnoredPath(absolutePath: string, input: SearchInput): boolean {
   let candidate = absolutePath;
   while (candidate !== input.root && isPathInsideRoot(input.root, candidate)) {