[Vivswan]

What this changes

The exclude discovery filter now matches through picomatch inside a grammar the input boundary owns. Documented forms keep their meaning. Anything else is refused by sentences that each name one fix, and one round yields acceptance.

pattern          today                      with picomatch
tmp-*            name starts with tmp-      same
octo/*           owner octo, any name       same
*                any name, .github too      same
tmp-?            literal "?" (none)         one character after tmp-
svc-[ab]         literal (none)             svc-a or svc-b
svc-[!ab]        literal (none)             svc- plus one other character
!svc-*           literal (none)             every name except svc-*
./tmp-**         literal (none)             refused: drop every leading "./", write one "*"
svc-(a)+  \d     literal (none)             refused: holds "(", ")", "+", remove them
[z-a]            literal (none)             refused: backwards range "z-a", write "[a-z]"
x/..  !!x        literal or refused         refused: never a name, "!" at 1 negates nothing
a/b/c  octo/     refused                    refused

How

• One compile per pattern at parse time: compileExcludePattern keeps the text, the scope, and the regex, so an argv config equals an env config.
• The boundary owns the grammar: name characters, one / at most, *, ?, [abc], [!abc], one leading !. Picomatch reads braces, quotes, and backslashes as regex, so anything else is refused.
• A refusal is a program: a pipeline of steps, each reading only the view the earlier fixes leave, with a property test applying the fixes mechanically.
• Linear for every input, the engine's refusal named in the same round.

Proof

• tsc, biome, lint:arch, knip, build:check, merge-tree, smoke green.
• 1174 targeted tests, 4 discovery e2e scenarios.
• Independent codex review converged.

Technical details

Line accounting (git diff --numstat origin/main...HEAD)

kind                 +     -
source (src/)      397    30
tests              363    14
e2e scenarios      102     0
docs (hand)         12     1
generated           10     3
package.json         2     0
total              886    48
bun.lock (separate)  4     0

Dependency: picomatch 4.0.7 (runtime, exact), @types/picomatch 4.0.3 (dev, exact). The main entry with windows: false, since the extensionless picomatch/posix subpath fails Node ESM resolution for the externalized library (package smoke) and the main entry otherwise follows the host OS. literalBrackets: false, since picomatch otherwise emits (?:\[a\]|[a]) per class, an alternation no name can match that made 20,000 classes quadratic and reached the engine's size limit.

Deliberate readings

• Refuse, never heal: the pattern is the user's workflow input (AGENTS.md hard rule).
• The flaw pass is EXCLUDE_STEPS, a pipeline of (view) => Pass functions folded by judgeExcludePattern, the only scope holding the raw pattern. Order: trim, remove every stray character (listed), remove unpaired brackets (by position), remove a ! or ^ that neither negates nor opens a class (by position), per class in one rebuild (remove * and ?, delete an empty class, move a literal - last, turn a backwards range), drop every leading ./, collapse a star run. Then what the user has to write, named with no fix applied: the length cap, an empty body (ends the pass), the segment count, a dot-only side, and a regex the engine itself refuses.
• One compile per pattern: the engine step compiles the fixed view, runs regex.test("") so V8's lazy compile surfaces there, and hands the regex out through the fold; compileExcludePattern keeps it. A test spies on picomatch.makeRe and sees one call for svc-[ab]; a clean result with no regex is a BUG: throw, since the engine step is last and runs whenever no earlier step ended the pass.
• A position counts from 0 in the pattern as the earlier fixes leave it, and the message says so when one appears.
• The class grammar allows - only as a range between two name characters or a literal first or last, so turning a range around can never pair a new one.
• Every pass is linear: one indexOf walk collects classes, a flag array marks unpaired brackets, removal skips through a Set on code units. Worst inputs at 65,536 characters: [ runs 8 ms, ! runs 7 ms, ] runs 11 ms, 20,000 classes 48 ms under node including the engine probe.
• The property test parses each refusal's sentences into appliers (trim, remove listed characters, remove at positions, drop ./, collapse stars, replace or delete a quoted class), applies them in order over 300 seeded patterns (seed 20261005, 36 pieces), and asserts acceptance or only remainder sentences the first round already named; a sentence with no applier throws. Named one-round cases include !!./tmp-**, x/.!, *[]*, []./x, ./ + 60,000 ?, and the over-cap inputs.
• Builder controls, rerunnable with the test's own applyFix and oneRound: 4000 patterns with a 65,540-character piece (seed 20261005), 50,000 patterns over 96 pieces up to 12 per pattern (seed 0x9e3779b9), 50,000 over 104 pieces (seed 0xa57a1c21), 30,000 over 114 pieces with emoji and lone surrogates (seed 0x6a09e667). All clean.
• The stray character and the displayed pattern go through quote (moved to src/text.ts), so a " or \ in the input stays distinguishable from the message's punctuation.
• matchBase was rejected: under it o/* stops matching o/x. The scope split stays our code.
• ExcludePattern stores picomatch's RegExp, not a closure, so toEqual holds across the argv and env paths.
• One problem code, input-exclude-pattern-invalid { pattern, reason }.
• Migration: docs/upgrading/v2-to-v3.md section 61 in six lines, since main sits at 1292 of the 1300-line cap.

Recorded, not built

• The step type hides the raw pattern by lexical scope only: a step could still compile an unrelated literal and satisfy the type, and nothing but review rejects that. That is the structure's honest limit.
• A solver proving a class can match a legal name: [.] or [!A-Za-z0-9_.-] compile correctly and match nothing.
• Unicode in patterns: GitHub names are ASCII, so the alphabet rule refuses it with the character named.
• A fuzz-generator roll for ? or ! patterns: the oracle supports them, the generator still rolls literal names.
• An exact-text row for the engine refusal: bun's engine accepts what V8 refuses, so the case is a one-round row only.
• Folding the default picomatch matching rows: the scope, case, leading-dot, and fast-path controls stay as rows.

Files: src/discovery/discover.ts, src/flows/input-readers.ts, src/flows/inputs.ts, src/problem.ts, src/text.ts, src/index.ts, test/discovery/discover.test.ts, test/e2e/oracle.ts, two e2e scenarios, docs/upgrading/v2-to-v3.md, docs/operate/multi-repo.md, docs/reference/library.md, regenerated action.yml and docs/reference/inputs.md.

BEGIN_COMMIT_OVERRIDE
feat(discovery)!: match exclude patterns with picomatch under an owned glob grammar

BREAKING CHANGE: In an exclude pattern, "?" now matches one character, "[abc]" and "[!abc]" are classes, and a leading "!" negates the pattern; each matched nothing before, so a pattern that relied on one of them matching literally is deleted and one that meant a glob is rewritten in that grammar. A leading "./" (drop it), a run of stars (write one "*"), surrounding whitespace from a library caller (trim it), a "." or ".." side, a second "/", a doubled "!", and any regex token ("(a)+", "\d", "{a..b}", quotes) fail the run naming the fix. Library callers supply exclude as ExcludePattern values from compileExcludePattern instead of strings.
END_COMMIT_OVERRIDE

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟢 Approval recommended

The implementation, validation boundary, public exports, documentation, and test coverage are consistent and complete.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: None

What changed in this PR

Adds validated picomatch-based glob filtering to repository discovery while preserving existing documented behavior.

Changes:

• Compiles and validates exclude patterns at input parsing.
• Adds ?, character classes, and negation support.
• Updates tests, e2e scenarios, documentation, and dependencies.

File	Description
src/​discovery/​discover.ts	Implements validated compiled glob matching.
src/​flows/​inputs.ts	Compiles patterns during input parsing.
src/​problem.ts	Adds detailed invalid-pattern errors.
src/​index.ts	Exports the new public API.
test/​discovery/​discover.test.ts	Tests grammar and matching semantics.
test/​action/​run.test.ts	Tests action-level validation errors.
test/​cli/​inputs.test.ts	Adapts CLI input assertions.
test/​problem.test.ts	Updates problem-message specimens.
test/​private.test.ts	Records the reviewed export surface.
test/​e2e/​oracle.ts	Supports ? and negation independently.
test/​e2e/​scenarios/​multi-discovery-exclude.yml	Covers scoped and single-character globs.
test/​e2e/​scenarios/​multi-discovery-exclude-negation.yml	Covers negated exclusion.
docs/​operate/​multi-repo.md	Documents the owned glob grammar.
docs/​reference/​library.md	Documents new library exports.
docs/​reference/​inputs.md	Updates generated input reference.
action.yml	Updates generated action input help.
package.json	Adds picomatch and its types.
bun.lock	Locks the added dependencies.

---

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[github-actions]

File size check

0 over a hard cap (fails), 11 warning(s).

File	Size	Tier	Cap
.github/scripts/gen-inputs-table.ts:54	11 comment lines	warn	10
.github/scripts/release-pipeline.ts:1	34 comment lines (header)	warn	25
.github/scripts/release-pipeline.ts:453	14 comment lines	warn	10
docs/upgrading/v2-to-v3.md	1298 lines	warn	1040
src/discovery/discover.ts:91	11 comment lines	warn	10
src/github/secret-scan.ts:45	11 comment lines	warn	10
src/sections/contract/errors.ts:13	14 comment lines	warn	10
src/sections/shared/roles.ts:43	13 comment lines	warn	10
test/e2e/generators.ts	2634 lines	warn	2560
test/e2e/generators.ts:1667	12 comment lines	warn	10
test/sections/refusal-messages.test.ts:61	19 comment lines	warn	10

Split the file, wrap the line, shorten or exempt the comment, or list the path in .file-size-allow.local with a # reason.

5 managed file(s) skipped; repo-platform owns them.

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Unescaped pattern values can produce ambiguous diagnostics and multiline healing notices.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1 · 2

Open (3)

• Serialize control characters in healed pattern notices · New
• Serialize offending characters in diagnostics · New
• Escape rejected patterns in diagnostics · New

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Validation omits some simultaneous flaws, refuses a required whitespace repair, and produces ambiguous quoted diagnostics.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1 · 2

Open (3)

• Trim surrounding whitespace and report the repair · New
• Escape rejected patterns in diagnostics
• Serialize offending characters in diagnostics

Resolved since last review (1)

• Serialize control characters in healed pattern notices

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟢 Approval recommended

The implementation, public API, documentation, and comprehensive tests consistently enforce the declared glob grammar.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 2

Open (2)

• Escape rejected patterns in diagnostics
• Serialize offending characters in diagnostics

Resolved since last review (1)

• Trim surrounding whitespace and report the repair

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟢 Approval recommended

The validation, matching, public API, documentation, and comprehensive tests are consistent with the stated breaking change.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: None

Resolved since last review (2)

• Escape rejected patterns in diagnostics
• Serialize offending characters in diagnostics

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Maximum-length malformed patterns can trigger quadratic validation work before producing an error.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1

Open (1)

• Use a Set to prevent quadratic removal-pass scans · New

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Accepted patterns are compiled twice despite the stated one-compile-per-pattern contract.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1

Open (1)

• Avoid compiling each accepted pattern twice · New

Resolved since last review (1)

• Use a Set to prevent quadratic removal-pass scans

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

The parser accepts a provably non-matching class, and its error grammar omits one supported class form.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 2

Open (2)

• Reject exclude patterns matching only invalid repository names · New
• Document the supported [^abc] negated class syntax · New

Resolved since last review (1)

• Avoid compiling each accepted pattern twice

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟢 Approval recommended

The matcher change is consistently implemented, documented, and covered by focused unit and end-to-end tests.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: None

Resolved since last review (2)

• Document the supported [^abc] negated class syntax
• Reject exclude patterns matching only invalid repository names