Add .deployignore support to Site Sync by ivan-ottinger · Pull Request #2955 · Automattic/studio

ivan-ottinger · 2026-04-01T10:05:29Z

Related issues

Related to STU-16

How AI was used in this PR

AI-assisted implementation with human iteration and review of all changes, architecture decisions, and edge cases. I have manually tested the changes as well.

Proposed Changes

Follow-up to #2924, which added .deployignore support for Preview Sites. This PR extends it to Site Sync (push to WordPress.com / Pressable).

Add additionalDefaults parameter to createDeployIgnoreFilter so the sync path can include Studio-internal exclusions (database, db.php, debug.log, sqlite-database-integration, cache) alongside the base defaults
Sync tree UI: Update listLocalFileTree and shouldExcludeFromSync to use the deploy-ignore filter. Files matching .deployignore patterns are hidden from the sync dialog. Dotfile hiding is preserved as a separate UI-only check
Sync push/export: Add optional deployIgnore field to ExportOptions, used by DefaultExporter.addWpContent() alongside existing hardcoded exclusions (isExactPathExcluded, isPathExcludedByPattern). Local backup export is unaffected (no filter passed)
meta.json filtering: Filter the plugin and theme lists in meta.json against the deploy-ignore filter. Without this, the server-side import would reinstall excluded plugins from WordPress.org even though their files were excluded from the archive
Rename SYNC_EXCLUSIONS to SYNC_ADDITIONAL_DEFAULTS — items already covered by deploy-ignore defaults (.git, node_modules, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db) are removed, keeping only Studio-internal items
Downgrade ignore package from v7 to v5 to match the rest of the dependency tree and avoid TypeScript type conflicts between different major versions

Testing Instructions

Tip

It is probably easier to ask your AI assistant to perform the steps 2 and 3 for you, so you don't have to create the testing files manually.

Create a local site in Studio

Add a .deployignore file at the site root (e.g., ~/Studio/my-site/.deployignore) with the following content:

# Ignore vendor dependencies in my-plugin, except important-lib
wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/*
!wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/important-lib

# Ignore all log files
*.log

# Ignore old uploads
wp-content/uploads/2024

# Ignore a specific plugin
wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo

Create matching test files/folders in the site's wp-content:

# Plugin with build artifacts
mkdir -p wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/some-lib
mkdir -p wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/important-lib
echo '<?php // plugin entry' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/my-plugin.php
echo '<?php // vendor file' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/some-lib/autoload.php
echo '<?php // important' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/vendor/important-lib/loader.php
echo 'build log' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/build.log

# .git and node_modules inside the plugin (built-in defaults)
mkdir -p wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/.git
echo 'ref: refs/heads/main' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/.git/HEAD
mkdir -p wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/node_modules/some-package
echo '{"name":"some-package"}' > wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/node_modules/some-package/package.json

# Old and new uploads
mkdir -p wp-content/uploads/2024
echo 'old photo' > wp-content/uploads/2024/photo.jpg
mkdir -p wp-content/uploads/2025
echo 'new photo' > wp-content/uploads/2025/photo.jpg

Install the wordpress-seo plugin on the site
Connect the local site to a target remote site (WordPress.com or Pressable)
Consider checking the target site to confirm it does not yet include any directories/files we want to ignore during the sync.
Open the Sync dialog and verify:
- wordpress-seo plugin is hidden from the tree
- akismet and my-plugin are still visible
- uploads/2024 directory is hidden
- uploads/2025 is still visible
Push to WordPress.com / Pressable and verify (e.g through a SSH connection to the WoA site):
- vendor/some-lib/ is excluded from the push
- vendor/important-lib/ is included (negation pattern)
- *.log files are excluded
- uploads/2024/ is excluded, uploads/2025/ is present
- wordpress-seo plugin is excluded and not reinstalled by the server
Verify that .git and node_modules inside my-plugin are excluded by built-in defaults
Verify that site export (backup) is unaffected by .deployignore

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

Integrate the deploy-ignore filter (from PR #2924) into the Site Sync flow. Files matching .deployignore patterns are now hidden from the sync tree UI and excluded from the push archive. - Add additionalDefaults parameter to createDeployIgnoreFilter for sync-specific Studio-internal exclusions - Update shouldExcludeFromSync to use the ignore filter alongside the existing dotfile check - Thread the deploy-ignore filter through listLocalFileTree recursion - Pass the filter via ExportOptions to DefaultExporter for archive filtering during sync push - Downgrade ignore package from v7 to v5 to match the rest of the dependency tree and avoid TypeScript type conflicts

ivan-ottinger · 2026-04-01T10:19:01Z

tools/common/package.json

 		"date-fns": "^3.3.1",
 		"fast-deep-equal": "^3.1.3",
-		"ignore": "^7.0.5",
+		"ignore": "^5.3.2",


I have made this change because other packages we are already using in Studio rely on the ignore v5. This version provides everything we need.

Using v7 would require several workarounds that would make the code less maintainable and more difficult to read

When specificSelectionPaths is undefined, the exporter reads wp-content from disk directly. Top-level directories like wordpress-seo need to be checked against the deploy-ignore filter before archiving, not just their children in the callback.

The server-side import uses meta.json to install plugins/themes from WordPress.org. Without filtering this list, excluded plugins would be reinstalled by the server even though their files were excluded from the archive.

…ore-to-site-sync

ivan-ottinger · 2026-04-01T12:49:05Z

apps/studio/src/lib/import-export/export/exporters/default-exporter.ts

+		studioJson.plugins = this.options.deployIgnore
+			? plugins.filter(
+					( p: StudioJsonPluginOrTheme ) =>
+						! this.options.deployIgnore!.ignores( `wp-content/plugins/${ p.name }` )
+			  )
+			: plugins;
+		studioJson.themes = this.options.deployIgnore
+			? themes.filter(
+					( t: StudioJsonPluginOrTheme ) =>
+						! this.options.deployIgnore!.ignores( `wp-content/themes/${ t.name }` )
+			  )
+			: themes;


These changes are required because otherwise the .deployignored plugins/themes would be reinstalled on the target site.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Extends existing .deployignore support to Studio’s Site Sync flow (sync tree UI + push/export), ensuring ignored files are consistently hidden/excluded and that meta.json doesn’t re-trigger server-side reinstalls of excluded plugins/themes.

Changes:

Adds additionalDefaults support to the shared deploy-ignore filter and updates sync defaults to use it.
Updates Sync tree listing/exclusion logic to rely on the deploy-ignore filter (while keeping dotfile hiding UI-only).
Passes deploy-ignore filtering through the export pipeline and filters meta.json plugin/theme lists accordingly; downgrades ignore to v5 to avoid type conflicts.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 8 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tools/common/package.json	Downgrades `ignore` dependency to `^5.3.2`.
tools/common/lib/deploy-ignore.ts	Adds `additionalDefaults` parameter to `createDeployIgnoreFilter`.
package-lock.json	Updates lockfile entries to reflect `ignore@5.3.2` usage.
apps/studio/src/modules/sync/lib/tree-utils.ts	Reworks sync exclusion logic to use a deploy-ignore filter + dotfile hiding.
apps/studio/src/modules/sync/lib/ipc-handlers.ts	Creates deploy-ignore filter during push export and passes it into `ExportOptions`.
apps/studio/src/modules/sync/constants.ts	Renames/adjusts sync exclusion defaults to Studio-internal items only.
apps/studio/src/lib/import-export/export/types.ts	Adds optional `deployIgnore?: Ignore` to `ExportOptions`.
apps/studio/src/lib/import-export/export/exporters/default-exporter.ts	Applies deploy-ignore filtering during wp-content archive creation and filters `meta.json` plugins/themes.
apps/studio/src/ipc-handlers.ts	Updates `listLocalFileTree` to build/reuse deploy-ignore filter when listing sync tree.

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apps/studio/src/modules/sync/constants.ts

tools/common/lib/deploy-ignore.ts

apps/studio/src/lib/import-export/export/exporters/default-exporter.ts

fredrikekelund · 2026-04-09T06:10:12Z

Noting that #3010 changed a lot of the sync logic on trunk. The CLI now also supports sync, and a lot of the internals moved to tools/common. We should update this PR accordingly

ivan-ottinger self-assigned this Apr 1, 2026

ivan-ottinger commented Apr 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

ivan-ottinger added 3 commits April 1, 2026 13:22

Filter meta.json plugin and theme lists against deployIgnore

e88ba03

The server-side import uses meta.json to install plugins/themes from WordPress.org. Without filtering this list, excluded plugins would be reinstalled by the server even though their files were excluded from the archive.

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into stu-16-add-deployign…

f2cba66

…ore-to-site-sync

ivan-ottinger requested a review from Copilot April 1, 2026 12:42

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of ivan-ottinger April 1, 2026 12:43 View session

ivan-ottinger commented Apr 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

ivan-ottinger added 2 commits April 1, 2026 14:54

Update SYNC_ADDITIONAL_DEFAULTS comment to clarify overridability

fd6e94c

Add tests for additionalDefaults parameter and negation override

edfa8e5

ivan-ottinger marked this pull request as ready for review April 1, 2026 13:00

ivan-ottinger requested a review from a team April 1, 2026 13:02

ivan-ottinger added the Reviewer can merge label Apr 2, 2026

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Add .deployignore support to Site Sync#2955

Add .deployignore support to Site Sync#2955
ivan-ottinger wants to merge 6 commits intotrunkfrom
stu-16-add-deployignore-to-site-sync

ivan-ottinger commented Apr 1, 2026 •

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ivan-ottinger commented Apr 1, 2026 •

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