feat(build): replace .flashignore with built-in ignore patterns

[deanq]

Summary

• Replace .flashignore file loading with built-in ignore patterns in ignore.py covering tests, docs, build artifacts, IDE files, and virtual environments
• Add deprecation warning for users who still have a .flashignore file, guiding them to migrate custom patterns to .gitignore
• Remove .flashignore from skeleton template, documentation, and wheel validation script

Test plan

• 20 new tests in tests/unit/cli/utils/test_ignore.py covering all built-in patterns, deprecation warning, edge cases
• Existing scanner and skeleton tests updated (renamed test_module.py -> worker_module.py to avoid built-in test_*.py exclusion)
• make quality-check passes (1222 tests, 73% coverage, clean lint)
• Verify flash build excludes tests/docs without needing .flashignore
• Verify deprecation warning appears when .flashignore exists in project

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request replaces the .flashignore file mechanism with built-in ignore patterns for Flash builds. The change simplifies project structure by eliminating the need for a separate Flash-specific ignore file, instead relying on a combination of .gitignore patterns and opinionated built-in exclusions.

Changes:

• Replaced .flashignore file loading with built-in ignore patterns covering tests, docs, build artifacts, IDE files, and virtual environments
• Added deprecation warning to guide users with existing .flashignore files to migrate custom patterns
• Updated all tests, documentation, and scripts to remove references to .flashignore

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 10 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/runpod_flash/cli/utils/ignore.py	Replaced .flashignore loading with built-in patterns and added deprecation warning
tests/unit/cli/utils/test_ignore.py	Added 20 comprehensive tests for all built-in patterns and deprecation behavior
tests/unit/test_skeleton.py	Removed .flashignore from skeleton creation tests
tests/unit/cli/commands/build_utils/test_scanner.py	Renamed test_module.py to worker_module.py to avoid test_*.py exclusion
tests/integration/test_lb_remote_execution.py	Renamed test_api.py to api_worker.py to avoid test_*.py exclusion
src/runpod_flash/cli/utils/skeleton_template/.flashignore	Deleted template file
src/runpod_flash/cli/commands/build_utils/scanner.py	Updated comment to remove .flashignore reference
scripts/validate-wheel.sh	Removed .flashignore from wheel validation checks
TESTING.md	Removed .flashignore reference from documentation
README.md	Removed .flashignore from project structure and troubleshooting

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[runpod-Henrik]

QA Report

Status: PASS
PR: #220 -- feat(build): replace .flashignore with built-in ignore patterns
Agent: flash-qa (PR mode)

Targeted Test Results

Area	Tests	Passed	Failed	Skipped
test_ignore.py (new)	20	20	0	0
test_scanner.py	42	42	0	0
test_skeleton.py	28	28	0	0
test_lb_remote_execution.py	10	10	0	0

Ignore Pattern Analysis

Built-in patterns cover:

• Build artifacts: .build/, .flash/, .runpod/, *.tar.gz, .git/, pycache/, *.pyc, *.pyo, *.pyd, *.egg-info/, dist/, build/
• Virtual environments: .venv/, venv/, env/
• IDE: .vscode/, .idea/
• Environment files: .env, .env.local
• Tests: tests/, test_*.py, *_test.py
• Documentation: docs/, *.md (with !README.md negation)

Comparison with old .flashignore template:
The new built-in patterns are a superset of the old .flashignore, with one intentional difference: .gitignore was previously excluded from builds but is no longer excluded. This is a minor improvement -- .gitignore is harmless in a deployed container and its exclusion was unnecessary.

Missing patterns (minor, not blocking):

• No pattern for .env.* wildcard (only .env and .env.local are excluded; .env.dev, .env.staging etc. would be included). Users should add these to .gitignore if needed.
• No pattern for *.log, *.tmp, or other common transient files (typically covered by .gitignore).
• No conftest.py pattern (it lives in tests/ so already covered by tests/ exclusion, but a root-level conftest.py would be included).
• No node_modules/ pattern (edge case if user has JS tooling).

These are non-blocking since users can add custom patterns to .gitignore.

Backward compatibility with existing .flashignore:

• When a .flashignore file exists, load_ignore_patterns() logs a clear WARNING: ".flashignore is no longer supported; patterns are now built-in. Move any custom patterns to .gitignore and delete .flashignore."
• The old .flashignore patterns are NOT loaded -- this is a breaking behavior change for users who had custom patterns in .flashignore. The warning message correctly instructs them to migrate to .gitignore.
• The .flashignore template file is deleted from the skeleton, so flash init no longer creates it.

Full Suite Results

Parallel (-n 4, non-serial): 1270 passed, 2 failed, 2 warnings
Serial: 24 passed, 10 failed, 1 skipped

All 12 failures are pre-existing on main (confirmed by running same tests against main branch):

• test_class_execution_integration.py (2): _constructor_args attribute error -- pre-existing
• test_remote_concurrency.py (10): asyncio TypeError -- pre-existing

No regressions introduced by this PR.

PR Diff Analysis

Files changed (10):

• src/runpod_flash/cli/utils/ignore.py -- Core change: replaces .flashignore loading with built-in patterns + deprecation warning
• src/runpod_flash/cli/utils/skeleton_template/.flashignore -- Deleted
• tests/unit/cli/utils/test_ignore.py -- New: 20 tests covering all built-in pattern categories
• tests/unit/test_skeleton.py -- Updated: removed .flashignore assertions (4 locations)
• tests/unit/cli/commands/build_utils/test_scanner.py -- Renamed test_module.py to worker_module.py in test fixtures (avoids test_*.py exclusion by new built-in patterns)
• tests/integration/test_lb_remote_execution.py -- Renamed test_api.py to api_worker.py (same reason)
• src/runpod_flash/cli/commands/build_utils/scanner.py -- Comment update only
• scripts/validate-wheel.sh -- Removed .flashignore from required files
• README.md, TESTING.md -- Documentation updates

Code quality: Clean, well-structured. The test renames from test_module.py to worker_module.py are a necessary consequence of the new test_*.py exclusion pattern and demonstrate the author correctly identified the impact.

No stale references: Searched entire codebase for "flashignore" -- only the deprecation warning code and its test remain. No references in pyproject.toml or other config files.

Recommendation

MERGE -- Clean removal of .flashignore with comprehensive built-in defaults, proper deprecation warning for existing users, thorough test coverage (20 new tests), and no regressions. The scanner test fixture renames show careful attention to the cascading effects of the new test_*.py exclusion pattern.

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Generated by flash-qa agent

[runpod-Henrik]

Code Review — PR #220: Replace .flashignore with built-in patterns

Good cleanup. One issue:

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Bug 1 (MEDIUM): Custom .flashignore patterns silently dropped

ignore.py — load_ignore_patterns()

flashignore = project_dir / ".flashignore"
if flashignore.exists():
    log.warning(
        ".flashignore is no longer supported; "
        "patterns are now built-in. "
        "Move any custom patterns to .gitignore and delete .flashignore."
    )
    # NOTE: patterns from .flashignore are NOT loaded

The warning is log.warning() — only visible if logging is configured at WARNING level. Default CLI log level is typically ERROR/INFO for user output. If a user had custom patterns (e.g., excluding a large data/ dir or proprietary files), their next flash build will silently include those files, making the build artifact much larger or including sensitive data.

Fix: Either (a) still load .flashignore patterns when the file exists (with the deprecation warning), or (b) print to console.print() / stderr so it's always visible:

if flashignore.exists():
    console.print("[yellow]warning:[/yellow] .flashignore is deprecated...")
    # still load patterns for one more version
    patterns.extend(parse_ignore_file(flashignore))

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Otherwise LGTM. The built-in pattern list covers all the same patterns that were in the old .flashignore template, plus the !README.md negation is handled correctly.

[runpod-Henrik]

What changed: flash build no longer reads .flashignore. Built-in patterns now automatically exclude tests, docs, markdown, env files, and IDE directories. Users with an existing .flashignore get a warning to migrate custom patterns to .gitignore.

Tests run against the PR branch (deanq/ae-2256-no-more-flashignore) using a worktree + flash build --no-deps on real project structures.

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What works

• All built-in exclusions apply correctly: tests/, test_*.py, *_test.py, docs/, *.md, .env, .vscode/, .idea/, dist/, build/, *.egg-info/
• README.md is kept while all other .md files are excluded
• .gitignore patterns are still respected
• The .flashignore deprecation warning is visible at the CLI level — it appears in log output during flash build

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What doesn't work

A worker file named test_*.py produces a silent broken build.

flash build on a project with only test_auth.py as the worker completes with exit 0, reports "1 file, 0 deps", and produces an artifact with an empty manifest:

{
  "resources": {},
  "function_registry": {}
}

No error. No warning. The endpoint deploys with no worker code. A user discovers this at runtime.

There is no escape hatch. Adding !test_auth.py to .gitignore does not override the built-in exclusion — the built-in test_*.py pattern is appended after gitignore patterns, so it always wins. Renaming the file is the only fix.

Custom .flashignore patterns are silently dropped. Patterns like secrets/ or large_data/ that aren't in the built-ins are no longer applied — those files now appear in the build artifact. The deprecation warning fires, but there's no build failure to force the user to act.

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Not tested

• flash deploy end-to-end (requires live API)
• Multi-file projects where only some workers are named test_*.py

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Verdict: The silent broken build when a worker is named test_*.py is a blocking issue. The build should either error when no endpoints are found after scanning, or warn when files containing @Endpoint decorators are excluded by ignore patterns. The custom .flashignore pattern drop is a migration risk but lower severity since the warning is visible.

[promptless]

📝 Documentation updates detected!

New suggestion: Update Flash docs for .flashignore deprecation and built-in ignore patterns

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