Untracked `wt.toml` config files no longer work

[sirianni]

#2690 caused a regression whereby my hooks no longer execute.

My .config/wt.toml is an untracked file because my team does not use worktree. I get the rationale for the change, but it would seem to be a barrier to adoption since now I have to convince my team to have a random config file in the repo for a tool that only I use. And do this for every repo that I work with. I can't imagine doing this for large public OSS repos.

Also, the team may not use some tools locally that I do like mise, direnv etc. so the hooks may fail on their machines.

[worktrunk-bot]

Thanks for reporting this. The behavior change is intentional — #2690 and #2714 made each worktree's .config/wt.toml stand on its own, so an untracked file in the primary worktree no longer reaches feature worktrees created from it.

For the use case you describe (hooks that are personal to you and not shared with teammates), the supported path is the user config at ~/.config/worktrunk/config.toml. It has a [projects."<identifier>"] table for per-repo personal settings, including hooks:

[projects."github.com/owner/repo"]
pre-merge.test = "npm test"
post-start.dev = "npm run dev"

Docs: User config → project-specific settings. Hooks added here apply only when you run wt in that repo, work across all worktrees of it, and are never visible to your team.

If you'd rather keep the file inside the repo, WORKTRUNK_PROJECT_CONFIG_PATH can point at a fixed path (e.g., one stored outside any worktree).

A maintainer will take a closer look.

[sirianni]

Does this syntax support ordering and arrays? I'm not an expert on the (super-confusing) toml syntax, but this is what I have

[[pre-start]]
copy = "wt step copy-ignored --verbose"

[[pre-start]]
direnv = "direnv allow"
mise = "mise trust"

[[post-start]]
uv = "uv sync

Can this be converted into a per-project setting?

[worktrunk-bot]

Yes — [projects."..."] accepts the full hook syntax, including [[pre-start]] pipelines. Your block translates one-to-one (just nest each block under the project key):

[[projects."github.com/owner/repo".pre-start]]
copy = "wt step copy-ignored --verbose"

[[projects."github.com/owner/repo".pre-start]]
direnv = "direnv allow"
mise = "mise trust"

[[projects."github.com/owner/repo".post-start]]
uv = "uv sync"

Ordering and concurrency are preserved: copy runs first as its own step, then direnv and mise run concurrently in the second step. I confirmed this end-to-end against the pre-start pipeline above — copy ran solo, then direnv and mise ran together, matching the project-config behavior documented in wt hook → Pipelines.

One small thing: the [[post-start]] block in your message is missing the closing quote on uv = "uv sync — easy typo when porting, just flagging.

[max-sixty]

yes, to confirm, wt.config doesn't need to be tracked. But I did remove the fallback-to-default-branch, because it was inconsistent and difficult to track exactly what was approved vs. being run

So if you use wt step copy-ignored, then you can leave it untracked; it'll copy into each workttree. (I think? if not, then lmk)

But also agree with @worktrunk-bot re putting those in user configs as overrides. claude should be able to do the conversion if you ask it, at least with the worktrunk skill — let me know if you hit any issues at all...

[worktrunk-bot]

Quick check on the "I think?" — wt step copy-ignored can't fully self-bootstrap for @sirianni's setup. Two gaps:

• wt switch --create resolves the new worktree's project config via git show <base-ref>:.config/wt.toml (switch.rs:1396-1413, config.rs:637-655) — committed objects only. An untracked source .config/wt.toml is invisible there, so a pre-start.copy = "wt step copy-ignored ..." hook defined in it never fires for the new worktree.
• wt step copy-ignored itself uses git ls-files --ignored --exclude-standard -o --directory (shared.rs:197-212) — only files matched by some gitignore source are listed. A file that's purely untracked but not in .gitignore / .git/info/exclude / global isn't picked up.

User config sidesteps both: user hooks are selected even when the new worktree's project config is None (hook_plan.rs:107-127), and the file doesn't need to live in the worktree at all. WORKTRUNK_PROJECT_CONFIG_PATH is the other working path — project_config_at_ref short-circuits to a disk read when it's set, so a fixed path outside the worktree gets read directly.

[sirianni]

So if you use wt step copy-ignored, then you can leave it untracked; it'll copy into each workttree. (I think? if not, then lmk)

That does not work in my experience (and seems to be confirmed by the bot)

[max-sixty]

That does not work in my experience (and seems to be confirmed by the bot)

yes, my mistake, thx

[max-sixty]

(I will close, but let me know any issues / any frictions with the user-project-overrides. Even if it's like "this is still a bit confusing"...)