fix(vcs): treat bare repositories as valid worktree sources

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.

[patroza]

Problem

Every T3 turn against /var/lib/t3/src/t3code on t3vm failed with:

Could not start T3 turn: dispatch failed: Git command failed in
GitWorkflowService.fetchRemote (/var/lib/t3/src/t3code):
Failed to resolve the VCS driver for this Git command.

The repository had core.bare = true. GitVcsDriver.detectRepository gated on
rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree, which conflates "is a Git repository" with
"has a checkout". A bare repository therefore detected as no repository at all, so
VcsDriverRegistry.resolve raised VcsUnsupportedOperationError and every Git route
failed — including the two a thread actually needs, fetchRemote and createWorktree.

Nothing was logged server-side: the error reached Discord but produced zero
t3code-server journal lines, so the host looked healthy.

Why bare should work

Starting a thread never needs the source repository to have a checkout — the thread gets
its own worktree. git worktree add, git fetch, and ref plumbing all work fine
against a bare repository. Only operations that touch a checkout need one.

The lower layer already agreed: resolveRepositoryPaths tolerates a failing
--show-toplevel and models worktreeRoot: null. Only the detection gate rejected bare.

Change

• Detect bare repositories instead of rejecting them; carry bare on
  VcsRepositoryIdentity. rootPath is the metadata directory when bare.
• One probe. Detection now runs a single combined
  rev-parse --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree, which separates no repository /
  bare / checkout in one call. Negative detection stays at one git invocation, so
  there is no added load on the status-poll path.
• Bare-safe routes opt in with allowBare: true: createWorktree, fetchRemote,
  resolveRemoteTrackingCommit, removeWorktree, renameBranch, and createRef when it
  is not also switching.
• Checkout-dependent routes (switchRef, pullCurrentBranch, stacked actions, PR
  thread preparation) keep the default and now fail with the real reason — the repository
  has no working tree — instead of a generic routing error.
• Status polling reports a bare repository as having no workspace rather than erroring
  on every poll.

Tests

• GitVcsDriver.test.ts — bare repo detects as bare: true; a repo whose config marks an
  existing checkout bare (the exact shape that broke t3vm) detects instead of returning
  null; non-repositories still return null; and a usable worktree is created from a bare
  repository, with the resulting checkout detecting as bare: false.
• GitWorkflowService.test.ts — createWorktree and fetchRemote run against a bare
  handle; switchRef is refused before reaching the driver with an actionable message;
  localStatus degrades to "no workspace".
• VcsDriverRegistry.test.ts — updated to the new probe, asserting one probe per detect.
• Contract harness asserts bare: false for ordinary repositories.

Note

The immediate outage was already mitigated on t3vm by git config core.bare false — that
repository has a full checkout and 15 linked worktrees, so its config flag was simply wrong.
This change is about the routing behavior: a repository without a checkout should not take
down thread creation, and when a checkout genuinely is required the error should say so.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Also in this PR: unblocking a red fork/changes

fork/changes was red when this branch was cut (Fork CI failing on Check and Test),
so the ship gate could not pass on the VCS fix alone. These commits fix that breakage. They
are unrelated to the VCS change and are separated per commit for review:

• style: format files drifted on fork/changes — whitespace only, in three files this
  branch does not otherwise touch (ThreadComposer.tsx, ProviderCommandReactor.ts,
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts). This is what CI's Check job was failing on.
• fix(desktop): add the missing removeCommandLineSwitch test stub — ElectronApp
  gained removeCommandLineSwitch, but the DesktopUpdates test mock was never updated, so
  @t3tools/desktop failed typecheck.
• refactor(server): use Effect FileSystem and Schema for the runtime descriptor —
  serverRuntimeStartup.ts wrote and cleaned up the runtime descriptor with
  node:fs/promises, node:path, and hand-rolled JSON, which the Effect diagnostics reject
  (nodeBuiltinImport, preferSchemaOverJson). It now uses Effect FileSystem/Path and
  the existingServerRuntimeDescriptor schema from @t3tools/shared/serverRuntime —
  the same schema the desktop client already decodes the file with, so the format now comes
  from one definition instead of two hand-written shapes. mode: 0o600 and the best-effort
  cleanup semantics are preserved, and a test pins the on-disk format against the consumer's
  decode path.

Known flake (not fixed here)

apps/desktop/src/app/DesktopPreReadyPlatform.test.ts > acquires a synchronous pre-ready layer before an asynchronous Clerk-shaped layer fails intermittently. It failed in one local
full-suite run, then passed on re-run, in isolation (3×), and in the full desktop suite
(456 tests) — and CI hit the same test on fork/changes this morning. It is pre-existing and
timing-sensitive; left alone rather than papered over.