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filesystem: search_files does not expand non-wildcard excludePatterns like directory_tree does

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
72/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
node.js, typescript
Domain
backend, testing

Research direction

Read searchFilesWithValidation in src/filesystem/lib.ts alongside buildTree in src/filesystem/server.ts to compare how they match excludePatterns. Add coverage in src/filesystem/__tests__/lib.test.ts and src/filesystem/__tests__/server-tools.test.ts for bare exclusions at top-level and nested directories. Done means search_files skips matching directory subtrees and its behavior matches directory_tree.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Summary

While auditing src/filesystem on v2.0.0 (origin/main) following the #4857 spec refactor, I found a behavioral mismatch in how excludePatterns is evaluated between directory_tree (src/filesystem/server.ts) and search_files (src/filesystem/lib.ts).

When an LLM or user passes a bare directory or file name in excludePatterns (for example, ["node_modules", ".git"]), directory_tree excludes both the directory and its entire subtree, whereas search_files still traverses into the excluded directory and returns all files inside it.

Server & Environment

  • Server: filesystem (@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem v2.0.0 / origin/main)
  • Files: src/filesystem/server.ts (buildTree) vs. src/filesystem/lib.ts (searchFilesWithValidation)
  • Protocol era / transport: Both 2026-07-28 and 2025-era over stdio / in-memory client transport

Reproduction / Root Cause in v2/main

  1. In directory_tree (src/filesystem/server.ts, lines 515–529), buildTree checks whether an exclusion pattern contains *. If it does not, it automatically expands the pattern to match nested paths and subtrees (**/${pattern} and **/${pattern}/**), and skips recursing into the excluded directory:
const shouldExclude = excludePatterns.some((pattern) => {
  if (pattern.includes("*")) {
    return minimatch(relativePath, pattern, { dot: true });
  }
  // For files: match exact name or as part of path
  // For directories: match as directory path
  return (
    minimatch(relativePath, pattern, { dot: true }) ||
    minimatch(relativePath, `**/${pattern}`, { dot: true }) ||
    minimatch(relativePath, `**/${pattern}/**`, { dot: true })
  );
});
if (shouldExclude) continue;
  1. In search_files (src/filesystem/lib.ts, lines 397–413), searchFilesWithValidation evaluates minimatch(relativePath, excludePattern, { dot: true }) directly without the non-wildcard expansion:
const relativePath = path.relative(rootPath, fullPath);
const shouldExclude = excludePatterns.some((excludePattern) =>
  minimatch(relativePath, excludePattern, { dot: true }),
);

if (shouldExclude) continue;
What happens when a caller passes excludePatterns: ["node_modules"] or ["sub"]:
  • At node_modules (top-level): relativePath is "node_modules". minimatch("node_modules", "node_modules") is true, so if (shouldExclude) continue skips recursing into top-level node_modules!
  • At packages/app/node_modules (nested directory): relativePath is "packages/app/node_modules". minimatch("packages/app/node_modules", "node_modules") is false! search_files enters packages/app/node_modules and traverses every file inside it.
  • When excludePatterns: ["node_modules/*"] or ["**/node_modules"] (without trailing /**) is passed: Even if a pattern matches files inside a directory, search_files still wastes I/O recursing unless the directory entry itself matches shouldExclude.

Expected vs. Actual Behavior

  • Expected: Passing excludePatterns: ["node_modules", ".git"] (or a bare filename/directory name without *) to search_files should behave identically to directory_tree: any nested directory or file matching pattern, **/${pattern}, or **/${pattern}/** is excluded and its directory subtree is not traversed.
  • Actual: directory_tree excludes nested packages/app/node_modules, while search_files traverses into packages/app/node_modules and returns matches from inside it unless the caller explicitly writes **/node_modules/**.

Prompt to Reproduce Fix in the Agentic Workflow

Per CONTRIBUTING.md, here is the exact prompt to fix and test this in the factory workflow:

Unify `excludePatterns` matching between `directory_tree` (`src/filesystem/server.ts`) and `search_files` (`src/filesystem/lib.ts`):

1. Extract a shared helper (or update `searchFilesWithValidation` in `src/filesystem/lib.ts` to match `buildTree` in `src/filesystem/server.ts`) so that when an entry in `excludePatterns` does not contain `*`, it matches `minimatch(relativePath, pattern, { dot: true }) || minimatch(relativePath, `**/${pattern}`, { dot: true }) || minimatch(relativePath, `**/${pattern}/**`, { dot: true })`.
2. Add a protocol-level test in `src/filesystem/__tests__/server-tools.test.ts` (and unit test in `src/filesystem/__tests__/lib.test.ts`) verifying that `search_files` with a bare name in `excludePatterns` (e.g. `excludePatterns: ["ignored_dir"]`) excludes both top-level `ignored_dir/file.txt` and nested `nested/ignored_dir/file.txt`, matching `directory_tree`'s behavior.
3. Run `npm run format` and `npm run local:gate`.
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