Allow all branch names to be glob patterns

01b85955ec11cb99ee24a5af62d7cbbb0e92151e

Tucker McKnight <tmcknight@instructure.com> | Mon Jan 19 2026

Allow all branch names to be glob patterns

Change the way that branches are matched to those patterns so that,
if multiple patterns match a branch name, the most specific pattern
is the one that is used.

Also allows new fields on a branch: description and compareTo. Prints
out the branch description on the branches page.

Also makes the max value work -- kicks out branches from the list if
there are already the max number of branches in the list. TODO:
need to make sure this only kicks out the branches that are the oldest
(that is, not recently committed to).
js_templates/branches.ts:19
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                  ${branch.branchName === data.branchInfo.branchName ? '<div class="badge rounded-pill bg-secondary mx-1">current</div>' : ''}
                  ${branch.branchName === data.reposConfig.repos[branch.repoName].defaultBranch ? '<div class="badge rounded-pill bg-info text-dark mx-1">default</div>' : ''}
                </div>
                <div class="card-body">Data about branch goes here</div>
              </div>
            `
            : ''
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                  ${branch.branchName === data.branchInfo.branchName ? '<div class="badge rounded-pill bg-secondary mx-1">current</div>' : ''}
                  ${branch.branchName === data.reposConfig.repos[branch.repoName].defaultBranch ? '<div class="badge rounded-pill bg-info text-dark mx-1">default</div>' : ''}
                </div>
                <div class="card-body">${branch.description || ''}</div>
              </div>
            `
            : ''
schemas/ReposConfiguration.json:14
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              {
                "additionalProperties": false,
                "properties": {
                  "glob": {
                    "type": "string"
                  },
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                  "max": {
                    "type": "number"
                  }
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                },
                "required": [
                  "glob",
                  "max"
                ],
                "type": "object"
              }
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              {
                "additionalProperties": false,
                "properties": {
                  "compareTo": {
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "description": {
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "max": {
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "pattern": {
                    "type": "string"
                  }
                },
                "required": [
                  "pattern"
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                ],
                "type": "object"
              }
src/branches.ts:10
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  cachedBranches = repos.flatMap((repo) => {
    return repo.branches.map((branch) => {
      return {
        branchName: branch.name,
        repoName: repo.name,
      }
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    })
  })
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  cachedBranches = repos.flatMap((repo) => {
    return repo.branches.map((branch) => {
      const result = {
        branchName: branch.name,
        repoName: repo.name,
      }
      if (branch.description) { result['description'] = branch.description }
      if (branch.compareTo) { result['compareTo'] = branch.compareTo }
      return result
    })
  })
src/configTypes.ts:11
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 *   repos: {
 *     "My Git Project": {
 *       defaultBranch: 'main',
 *       branches: ['main', 'develop']
 *     },
 *   },
 * }
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 *   repos: {
 *     "My Git Project": {
 *       defaultBranch: 'main',
 *       branchesToPull: ['main', 'develop']
 *     },
 *   },
 * }
src/configTypes.ts:53
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  location: string,
  description?: string,
  defaultBranch: string,
  branchesToPull: Array<string | {glob: string, max: number}>,
  tags?: Array<string | {glob: string, max: number}>,
  languageExtensions?: {
    [fileExtension: string]: string
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  location: string,
  description?: string,
  defaultBranch: string,
  branchesToPull: Array<string | {pattern: string, max?: number, compareTo?: string, description?: string}>,
  tags?: Array<string | {glob: string, max: number}>,
  languageExtensions?: {
    [fileExtension: string]: string
src/dataTypes.ts:5
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  defaultBranch: string,
  branches: Array<{
    name: string,
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    head: string,
    fileList: Array<string>,
  }>,
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  defaultBranch: string,
  branches: Array<{
    name: string,
    description?: string,
    compareTo?: string,
    head: string,
    fileList: Array<string>,
  }>,
src/repos.ts:14
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const exec = util.promisify(childProcess.exec)

const branchesForReposMap: Map<string, string[]> = new Map()

const getBranchNames = async (repoConfig: GitConfig, repoName: string): Promise<Array<string>> => {
  const cachedBranchNames = branchesForReposMap.get(repoName)
  if (cachedBranchNames !== undefined) {
    return cachedBranchNames
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const exec = util.promisify(childProcess.exec)

const branchesForReposMap: Map<string, Array<{name: string, description?: string, compareTO?: string}>> = new Map()

const getBranches = async (repoConfig: GitConfig, repoName: string): Promise<Array<{name: string, description?: string, compareTo?: string}>> => {
  const cachedBranchNames = branchesForReposMap.get(repoName)
  if (cachedBranchNames !== undefined) {
    return cachedBranchNames
src/repos.ts:24
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src/repos.ts:68
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wiki/projects/branch-globs.md:42
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    - this is a good reason to put the deployed repo config on the public site, too.
      I currently have different example site configs between my laptop and the deployed
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      site.
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    - this is a good reason to put the deployed repo config on the public site, too.
      I currently have different example site configs between my laptop and the deployed
      site.

## Jan 18, 2026

*An idea:* allow the object with a glob in it to also specify things like the description
and which parent branch the branch should be compared to.

Multiple branch patterns (let's use the word "pattern" instead of "glob") can match
the same branch -- the more specific one should be used.

E.g.:

```
branchesToPull: [
  {
    pattern: "deploy/**",
    description: "A deployed branch",
  },
  {
    pattern: "deploy/v2**",
    description: "A version 2 deployed branch",
  }
]
```

In the above example, branch `deploy/v1.0.1` should have the description "A deployed
branch," but branch `deploy/v2.0.1` should have the description "A version 2
deployed branch."

Is the "more specific pattern" just always the one that is longer? Try this for now.