fix(web): replace whitespace in new ref names with dashes

[jorj-pineda]

Creating a ref from the branch picker passed the typed name straight through to git, which rejects every ref name containing ASCII whitespace. Typing a name like "new branch" therefore always failed with a raw git error, so the picker accepted input it could never act on.

The typed name now has runs of whitespace collapsed to a single dash, turning "new branch" into "new-branch". The picker's "Create new ref" entry shows the sanitized name, so it no longer promises one name and creates another.

Scoped deliberately to whitespace. Case is preserved because git ref names are case sensitive, and existing dashes are left alone because consecutive dashes are valid. Names that are invalid for other reasons still surface the git error unchanged. Only the whitespace git actually rejects is replaced, ASCII space and the ASCII control characters. Names containing whitespace git accepts, such as U+00A0, are left untouched.

Closes #6163

Before / after

	Typed	Picker shows	Result
Before	new branch	Create new ref "new branch"	Failed to create and switch ref.
After	new branch	Create new ref "new-branch"	ref new-branch created and checked out

Before (on main): typing "new branch" fails:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/90b1b4ef-2e2b-4c4c-94df-9fe2f8939647

After (this PR): the same input creates new-branch:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/63e94eae-c0de-43bf-8022-60fb02daca20

Verification

• apps/web unit tests: 65 passed, including 9 new cases covering sanitizeNewRefName
• Targeted lint, typecheck (tsgo --noEmit) and vp fmt --check all pass
• Every sanitized output asserted in the tests was independently checked against git check-ref-format
• Verified end to end in the web client: typing "new branch" in the ref picker creates and switches to new-branch

Written with Claude Opus 5 in Claude Code.

Note

Replace whitespace with dashes in new git ref names in the branch picker

• Adds sanitizeNewRefName in BranchToolbar.logic.ts that trims input and collapses ASCII whitespace runs (spaces, tabs, newlines, etc.) into a single dash, leaving non-ASCII characters and existing dashes untouched.
• The branch picker's search now matches refs against the sanitized query, so typing "new branch" surfaces "new-branch" in results.
• Server-side ref queries, collision detection, and the "Create new ref" label all use the sanitized form of the user's input.
• When creating a new ref, the name is sanitized before submission, preventing invalid git ref names containing spaces.

^{Macroscope summarized d2241dd.}

---

Note

Low Risk
Scoped UX fix in the web branch picker with thorough unit tests; no auth, persistence, or server contract changes beyond ref query strings.

Overview
The branch picker no longer sends typed ref names with ASCII whitespace straight to git. sanitizeNewRefName trims input and collapses runs of spaces, tabs, and other ASCII control whitespace into a single dash (e.g. new branch → new-branch), while leaving case, slashes, user-typed dashes, and non-ASCII whitespace git accepts unchanged.

Create new ref uses the sanitized name for the mutation, the picker label, duplicate detection, and the paginated ref search query. Client-side filtering via shouldIncludeBranchPickerItem also matches refs when the search text sanitizes to an existing ref name, so spaced queries still surface new-branch.

Unit tests cover sanitization edge cases and picker filtering behavior.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit d2241dd. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved ac70c59

Straightforward bug fix that sanitizes user-typed branch names by replacing spaces with dashes (since git rejects spaces in ref names). Changes are limited to a simple utility function and its usage in the branch picker, with comprehensive test coverage.

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[jorj-pineda]

Thanks — two of the three findings were real and are now fixed. Every review above ran against 111359af5; the branch is three commits past that, so here is where each stands:

Finding	Status
Macroscope: over-replaces Unicode whitespace	Fixed in 542ef842c
Macroscope: collision check uses the raw query	Fixed in d36efad56
Cursor: collision check "still looks up the raw trimmed query"	Fixed in d36efad56, which predates that review

The Unicode finding was a good catch and the original code was wrong. Checked against git directly:

Character	git check-ref-format --branch
U+0020 space	rejected
U+0009 tab	rejected
U+00A0 no-break space	accepted
U+2009 thin space	accepted

\s matched all four, so a name git would happily create was being silently rewritten. The sanitizer now replaces only ASCII space and the ASCII control characters, with tests asserting U+00A0 and U+2009 survive untouched.

Cursor's comment raised a second point that was still live after the collision fix: the existing ref also got filtered out of the list, so a query whose sanitized form already exists showed "No refs found" — create suppressed, matching ref hidden. Fixed in 782578157 with tests.

The approvability verdict above was produced before the first of these fixes was pushed, so it reflects the pre-fix commit.

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 1 potential issue.

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[arturo-source]

Something you might want to consider for future PRs: there are another invalid character that can be replaced by a dash.

const GIT_REF_FORBIDDEN_CHARS = /[\x00-\x1f\x7f ~^:?*[\\]+/g;

And the branch name cannot start with dash -.

[arturo-source]

Something you might want to consider:

1. I create a branch "hello world"
2. The branch created is "hello-world"
3. Later I search for "hello w"

Even if I search with an space, the branch hello-world should appear as an option of an already created branch.

[jorj-pineda]

@arturo-source
Thanks for ur input! Both r useful.

On the search case: that one already works as of ae8e65aa7, which landed after you looked. The ref list is filtered server side with a substring match, so the raw hello w was dropping hello-world from the response before the client ever saw it. The query is sanitized now too, so the server matches on hello-w. Added ac70c59d2 covering exactly your scenario, and it passes without any further source change.

On the forbidden characters: you're right that the full set is [\x00-\x1f\x7f ~^:?*[\\] plus the rule that a name cannot start with -. I'd rather keep those out of this PR. #6163 asked specifically for spaces, and handling the rest turns a small input fix into a partial reimplementation of check-ref-format, which deserves its own review. Names invalid for those reasons still surface the git error today, same as before.

Happy to open a separate issue for the wider character set if that's useful.