# Empty-repo hardening (unborn HEAD) — design

**Date:** 2026-07-30
**Status:** approved (option "Auto-Bootstrap" chosen by Mika)

## Problem

`GetInteractiveLaunchSpec` (embedded ConPTY session) fails with a raw git error when the
task's list points at a git repository that has **no commits yet** (fresh `git init`,
unborn HEAD):

```
HubException: git rev-parse HEAD failed (exit 128): fatal: ambiguous argument 'HEAD': unknown revision ...
```

Root cause chain: `InteractiveLaunchSpecService.BuildForTaskAsync` → `WorktreeManager.CreateAsync`
→ `IsGitRepoAsync` (passes — `rev-parse --git-dir` works on an empty repo) →
`ResolveBaseCommitAsync` → `RevParseHeadAsync` (fatals — HEAD is unborn). The same gap
exists in `PlanningSessionManager.StartAsync` and hits autonomous runs (`TaskRunner` →
`CreateAsync` → task `Failed` with the same cryptic message).

This is a "works on my laptop" class of bug: on a fresh PC the first thing a user tries is
a freshly init-ed test repo, which breaks instantly. A second member of the same class:
a PC without `git config user.name/email` breaks every auto-commit
("Please tell me who you are").

## Decision

**Auto-bootstrap:** when a worktree (task run / ConPTY / planning) needs a base commit and
the repo has zero commits, ClaudeDo creates an empty initial commit automatically and
proceeds. Nothing can be lost — the repo is empty. Genuinely broken states (HEAD not a
symbolic ref and not resolvable) still produce a clear, actionable error instead of raw
git stderr.

## Design

### 1. `GitService.HasHeadCommitAsync(dir)`

`git rev-parse --verify --quiet HEAD` → exit 0 means HEAD resolves to a commit.

### 2. `GitService.EnsureHeadCommitAsync(dir)` → `bool` (true = bootstrapped)

- HEAD resolves → return `false` (no-op).
- `git symbolic-ref -q HEAD` fails → repo is corrupt (detached HEAD onto a missing
  commit, mangled `.git/HEAD`) → throw `InvalidOperationException` with a clear message
  naming the directory. Auto-fixing a corrupt repo is out of scope by design.
- Otherwise HEAD is an unborn branch → bootstrap **via plumbing only** (never touches the
  user's index or working tree — staged/untracked files stay exactly as they were):
  1. `git hash-object -w -t tree --stdin` with empty stdin → empty tree object.
  2. `git -c user.name=ClaudeDo -c user.email=claudedo@local commit-tree <tree> -m
     "chore: initialize repository (ClaudeDo)"` — inline identity so this works on a PC
     with no git identity configured.
  3. `git update-ref <unborn-branch-ref> <commit>`.
- Serialized behind a process-wide gate with a re-check after acquiring, so two parallel
  task starts on the same empty repo bootstrap exactly once.

### 3. Defense-in-depth: friendly `RevParseHeadAsync` error

When `rev-parse HEAD` fails with the unborn-HEAD signature ("ambiguous argument 'HEAD'"),
throw "The repository at {dir} has no commits yet" instead of raw stderr — covers any
future call site that forgets the preflight.

### 4. Call sites

- `WorktreeManager.CreateAsync` — after the `IsGitRepoAsync` guard, call
  `EnsureHeadCommitAsync`; log when a bootstrap happened. Covers autonomous runs,
  interactive ConPTY sessions, improvement/planning children.
- `PlanningSessionManager.StartAsync` — same, before its own `RevParseHeadAsync`.

### 5. Git identity fallback for auto-commits

`GitService.CommitAsync`: if the commit fails with the missing/empty-identity signature,
retry once with inline `-c user.name="ClaudeDo" -c user.email="claudedo@local"`.
Happy path costs nothing (no preflight call); a fresh PC without git identity no longer
fails every task auto-commit.

## Out of scope

- UI validation when configuring a list's WorkingDir (nice-to-have; the worktree paths now
  either self-heal or produce clear errors).
- Repairing corrupt repos.

## Test plan (real git, Worker.Tests)

- `HasHeadCommitAsync`: false on fresh `git init`, true after a commit.
- `EnsureHeadCommitAsync` on an empty repo: returns true, `rev-parse HEAD` then works,
  tree of the bootstrap commit is empty, second call returns false.
- Staged-file preservation: file staged in empty repo → after bootstrap it is still
  staged and NOT part of the bootstrap commit.
- Corrupt HEAD (point `.git/HEAD` at a bogus ref? no — detach onto a garbage SHA by
  writing `.git/HEAD` directly): clear error, no bootstrap.
- `CommitAsync` identity fallback: local `user.name`/`user.email` set to empty strings
  (forces the identity failure deterministically regardless of global config) → commit
  succeeds via fallback, author is ClaudeDo.
- `WorktreeManager.CreateAsync` on an empty repo: succeeds; worktree exists; base commit
  = bootstrap commit.
- `PlanningSessionManager.StartAsync` on an empty repo: succeeds (if existing test infra
  makes this cheap; otherwise covered by the shared code path).
