feat: extend autodiscover.ignore_paths to targeted -d commands by emanuelbesliu · Pull Request #6466 · runatlantis/atlantis

emanuelbesliu · 2026-05-12T08:49:49Z

Summary

Extends autodiscover.ignore_paths to also filter targeted commands (atlantis plan -d <path>, atlantis apply -d <path>) when the path has no explicit project configuration.

Fixes #6460

Problem

In multi-instance setups where each Atlantis instance manages a different directory subtree (e.g., environments/prod/ vs environments/nonprod/), autodiscover.ignore_paths correctly prevents auto-discovery of projects in ignored paths. However, when a user runs a targeted command like atlantis apply -d environments/prod/test, both instances would react because the targeted command path bypassed ignore_paths filtering.

Solution

Added isAutoDiscoverPathIgnored checks in buildProjectPlanCommand and buildProjectCommand — the two functions that handle targeted -d commands. The check:

Parses the repo config to determine if the targeted path has an explicit project entry
If it does → allows the command (explicit config takes precedence)
If it doesn't → checks ignore_paths and silently skips if matched

This mirrors the existing semantics in getMergedProjectCfgs and buildAllProjectCommandsByPlan, where ignore_paths only filters auto-discovered (non-configured) paths.

Why not in `buildProjectCommandCtx`?

The check is intentionally placed in the caller functions rather than the shared buildProjectCommandCtx because the latter is also called from buildAllProjectCommandsByPlan which has its own filtering logic that preserves explicitly-planned paths tracked in PullStatus. Putting the check there would break that behavior.

Tests

TestDefaultProjectCommandBuilder_BuildTargetedCommand_IgnorePaths — global config ignore_paths blocks targeted plan/apply
TestDefaultProjectCommandBuilder_BuildTargetedCommand_IgnorePathsRepoCfg — repo-level ignore_paths blocks targeted commands
TestDefaultProjectCommandBuilder_BuildTargetedCommand_IgnorePathsExplicitProjectAllowed — explicit project config overrides ignore_paths

Docs

Updated repo-level-atlantis-yaml.md and server-side-repo-config.md to document the broader scope of ignore_paths.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Extends autodiscover.ignore_paths behavior so targeted -d plan/apply commands are ignored when the target dir has no explicit project configuration, helping multi-instance Atlantis deployments avoid reacting to out-of-scope paths.

Changes:

Added ignore_paths filtering for targeted plan -d and other targeted commands when there is no explicit project config for the target dir.
Added unit tests covering global and repo-level ignore_paths behavior and the “explicit project overrides ignore_paths” case.
Updated documentation to clarify that ignore_paths also applies to targeted -d commands when the path is not explicitly configured.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
server/events/project_command_builder.go	Applies `ignore_paths` filtering to targeted command builders (plan + non-plan targeted commands).
server/events/project_command_builder_test.go	Adds tests for targeted command behavior with global/repo-level `ignore_paths` and explicit-project override.
runatlantis.io/docs/server-side-repo-config.md	Documents that `ignore_paths` also affects targeted `-d` commands when no explicit project config exists.
runatlantis.io/docs/repo-level-atlantis-yaml.md	Expands `ignore_paths` docs to include targeted `plan/apply -d` semantics and multi-instance motivation.

…DiscoverModeEnabled Address Copilot review feedback on PR runatlantis#6466: - Extract duplicated ignore_paths logic into shouldIgnoreTargetedDir() - Gate the check behind autoDiscoverModeEnabled() for consistency - Add targeted apply -d assertions to repo-level config test Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

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Pull request overview

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

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

gonzaloserrano · 2026-06-23T09:29:26Z

Hey, this would help me a ton to reduce unwanted noise in atlantis-related PRs. Any chance to merge this?

chenrui333 · 2026-06-26T05:25:55Z

checking on this

emanuelbesliu · 2026-06-26T05:36:11Z

Thank you everyone making this happen!

…DiscoverModeEnabled Address Copilot review feedback on PR runatlantis#6466: - Extract duplicated ignore_paths logic into shouldIgnoreTargetedDir() - Gate the check behind autoDiscoverModeEnabled() for consistency - Add targeted apply -d assertions to repo-level config test Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

chenrui333 · 2026-06-26T05:56:24Z

a bit late for me, I will continue checking tomorrow

Previously, autodiscover.ignore_paths only filtered projects during auto-discovery (plan-all) and apply-all. Targeted commands like 'atlantis plan -d <path>' and 'atlantis apply -d <path>' bypassed this filtering entirely, causing issues in multi-instance setups where each Atlantis instance manages a different directory subtree. This change adds ignore_paths checking to buildProjectPlanCommand and buildProjectCommand (the targeted command handlers). When a user runs a targeted command against a path that matches ignore_paths and has no explicit project configuration in atlantis.yaml, the command is silently skipped (returns no projects). Paths with explicit project config are NOT affected — the ignore only applies to paths that would otherwise be auto-discovered. Fixes runatlantis#6460 Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

…DiscoverModeEnabled Address Copilot review feedback on PR runatlantis#6466: - Extract duplicated ignore_paths logic into shouldIgnoreTargetedDir() - Gate the check behind autoDiscoverModeEnabled() for consistency - Add targeted apply -d assertions to repo-level config test Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

- Skip ignore_paths check when -d uses glob patterns - Fix doc comment to reference repo config file generically - Add apply assertions to ExplicitProjectAllowed test Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

Update docs to reflect that ignore_paths filtering covers all targeted -d commands (plan, apply, import, state rm, etc.), not just plan/apply. Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

Signed-off-by: emanuelbesliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

Signed-off-by: Emanuel Besliu <32497562+emanuelbesliu@users.noreply.github.com>

Run the autodiscover.ignore_paths guard before restrict-file-list validation for targeted plan -d commands so ignored directories remain no-op even when they are not in the modified file list. Add regression coverage that verifies the ignored targeted dir returns no project contexts without calling the modified-file lookup. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Return a sentinel when targeted -d commands match autodiscover.ignore_paths so comment runners can distinguish ignored targets from ordinary zero-project results. Skip comments, combined status updates, and post-workflow hooks for ignored targeted plan/apply commands, and let API request parsing skip those targets instead of failing. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Set the plan status to failed when autoplan stops on a pre-workflow hook error now that pending status is no longer set before command construction. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Classify ignored targeted dirs before plan review dismissal and apply lock handling, and make all targeted command runners treat the sentinel as a true skipped command. Keep API command and hook lists aligned when ignored paths are dropped. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Classify ignored targeted dirs before comment pre-workflow hooks and before non-plan builders require an existing workspace. Preserve skipped API requests as no-ops when every requested path is ignored. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Classify ignored targeted directory commands before comment validations that can publish user, var-file, fork, or closed-PR errors. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Autoplan uses the plan command runner for execution, so pre-workflow hook skip checks must look up the registered plan runner instead of the synthetic autoplan command. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Avoid API PR lock cleanup for all-ignored requests, let pre-workflow hooks generate explicit config before the final ignored-target skip, and keep expected ignored-target sentinels out of builder error metrics. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Run normal command validations before pre-workflow hooks even for initially ignored targeted directories, while keeping ignored-target validation failures silent. Prefer generated local repo config for the post-hook ignored-target recheck so explicit projects added by hooks are honored. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Use the local merged checkout config for targeted ignore checks when checkout-strategy=merge is enabled. If no merged checkout exists yet, fail open so commands can clone and evaluate the merged config instead of silently skipping from head-branch config. Assisted-by: OpenAI <noreply@openai.com> Signed-off-by: Rui Chen <rui@chenrui.dev>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 12, 2026 08:49

dosubot Bot added docs Documentation feature New functionality/enhancement go Pull requests that update Go code labels May 12, 2026

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