Prevent .nwave/ from being committed

[dale-stewart]

I've noticed other tools that create directories in a local git clone add a .gitignore file containing a single asterisk to prevent the files in that directory from being committed. If that is the intent of the .nwave/ directory, would it make sense for this tool to behave in the same way?

Existing examples of this practice include .venv/, .pytest_cache/, .ruff_cache/, and htmlcov/.

[11PJ11]

Thank you @dale-stewart — great suggestion and exactly the right pattern to follow. Tools like .pytest_cache/ and .ruff_cache/ do exactly this, and we should too.

Root Cause: We found 5 code paths that create .nwave/ directories (installer + runtime adapters) and none of them create a .gitignore.

Fix: We're adding a shared utility that creates .nwave/.gitignore with * content, called from both the installer (primary creation point) and runtime adapters (defensive). Existing installations will get the .gitignore on next update via the plugin's verify() migration path.

Status: Fix in progress, acceptance tests written. Will be included in the next release.

— nwave.ai

[11PJ11]

Fixed in v3.4.0! .nwave/.gitignore with * content is now created at install time and at runtime. Existing installations will get it automatically on next nwave-ai install. Thanks for flagging this — simple but important fix.

[dale-stewart]

I have upgraded and I am still not seeing the desired behavior. When I first begin to use nWave in an existing repository, des-config.json is the first file that appears in .nwave/, and at that point the .gitignore file does not appear - I have to add it manually. I have explored the nWave code and I see that the feature is implemented, but in practice the .gitignore file is not created. In case the issue is platform dependent, I am using nWave in Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS.

[11PJ11]

@dale-stewart — you were right, and thank you for the careful investigation. Our v3.4.0 fix was incomplete.

Root cause: we patched the .gitignore creation only in the install-time path and in the audit log writer. But .nwave/ actually gets created lazily at runtime from several other code paths — most notably DESConfig.save_update_check_state(), which fires on SessionStart when the update check runs. That path did mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) on .nwave/ without touching .gitignore, which matches exactly what you observed: des-config.json appears first, no .gitignore.

Fix (v3.10.1, just released):

• Extracted ensure_nwave_gitignore(path) as a shared helper in the DES domain layer
• Called from every runtime path that creates .nwave/: config save, task signal, skill tracker, audit log
• 3 acceptance regression tests that fail on the old code and pass on the fix
• Smoke-tested against the published PyPI artifact in a clean directory, reproducing your exact scenario — .gitignore is now created alongside des-config.json on first use

To upgrade:

pipx upgrade nwave-ai

Sorry for the false closure. Your code walkthrough made the fix straightforward — genuinely appreciated.

— nWave.ai

[dale-stewart]

FYI, I have been using uv successfully with nWave. My upgrade command is:

uv tool upgrade nwave-ai

And I can confirm it is working now. Thanks for the fast response!

[11PJ11]

@dale-stewart — glad it's working! And thanks for the uv tip — good to have that confirmed as a fully supported install path alongside pipx. We'll mention both in the docs going forward.

Appreciate the back-and-forth on this one.

— nWave.ai