This opt-in feature makes ChatGPT Community's local recursive fs.watch requests
non-recursive on Linux.
Sidebar task previews create short-lived watches for the task's working tree
and Git metadata. Node implements recursive: true on Linux by synchronously
walking the watched tree and opening one watch per directory. A repository with
many worktrees, generated directories, or namespaced refs can therefore stall
Electron's main thread simply when its task row is hovered.
The patch changes only Linux recursive requests. Existing non-recursive watches
and other platforms are untouched. The current Linux Parcel working-tree path
is routed through the same shallow host, which reports recursive: false so
Codex's focus-recovery path remains available.
Enable it in linux-features/features.json and rebuild:
{
"enabled": [
"shallow-repository-watches"
]
}NixOS and Home Manager users can add the feature ID to linuxFeatures:
programs.codexDesktopLinux.linuxFeatures = [
"shallow-repository-watches"
];- Deep filesystem or Git-ref changes may refresh when Codex regains focus instead of immediately while the window remains focused.
- The feature intentionally favors bounded UI latency over continuous recursive coverage. It is disabled by default.
- It conflicts with
directory-only-working-tree-watch; select one strategy. - This is an upstream-bundle patch. Drift in the enabled feature rejects a rebuild candidate rather than silently restoring recursive watches.
Run its tests with:
node --test linux-features/shallow-repository-watches/test.js