msd-core/docs/how-to/keep-planning-docs-private.md

# Keep planning docs out of a shared repo

You are working in a team repo and want MSD's `.planning/` artifacts — PLAN.md, SUMMARY.md,
ROADMAP.md, STATE.md — to stay on your machine instead of appearing in commits your teammates read.

This takes four steps, and the third is the one people miss.

## 1. Turn off doc commits

```bash
msd-tools config-set planning.commit_docs false
```

`msd-tools query commit` now returns a `skipped` envelope instead of committing, and every workflow
that writes a planning artifact honors it.

## 2. Ignore the directory

Add to `.gitignore`:

```
.planning/
```

This is also enough on its own: when `.planning/` is gitignored and `config.json` sets no explicit
value, MSD auto-resolves `commit_docs` to `false`. Setting it explicitly in step 1 is clearer, and
it survives someone later editing `.gitignore`.

## 3. Untrack what git is already tracking

**This is the step that catches people out.** `.gitignore` only stops git picking up *new* files.
It has no effect on files already committed — git keeps tracking those, so `git add -A` keeps
staging them even though steps 1 and 2 are both done.

Because MSD's default is `commit_docs: true`, most existing projects already have `.planning/`
in history, which makes this the common case rather than an edge case.

```bash
git rm -r --cached .planning/
git commit -m "chore: stop tracking planning docs"
```

`--cached` removes the files from the index only — your files on disk are untouched.

To check whether this applies to you before running it:

```bash
git ls-files .planning
```

Any output means git is still tracking those paths.

## 4. Keep search working

With `.planning/` ignored, tools that respect `.gitignore` stop searching it — including MSD's own
broad searches, which is rarely what you want, since the planning docs are exactly what you want an
agent to read.

```bash
msd-tools config-set planning.search_gitignored true
```

This adds `--no-ignore` to broad searches so `.planning/` is still found locally.

## Verify

```bash
msd-tools validate health
```

A clean result means you are done. If you skipped step 3, you will see:

```
W029  .planning/ is gitignored but N file(s) are still tracked by git
      Fix: git rm -r --cached .planning/ && git commit -m "chore: stop tracking planning docs"
```

`W029` is advisory. MSD will not untrack files for you, and `--repair` deliberately does not act on
it — removing files from the index is destructive and the timing is yours.

## Notes

- **A deliberate force-add also raises `W029`.** If you intentionally keep one file tracked under an
  otherwise-ignored `.planning/` (`git add -f .planning/decisions.md`), the warning still appears.
  There is no reliable way to tell an intentional force-add from the accidental case, so the warning
  is expected there too.
- **Teammates who have already pulled the tracked files** will see them deleted by your step-3
  commit. That is the intended effect — the files leave the repo, not their working copies of your
  branch — but say so in the commit message or PR description so it is not a surprise.

## Per-phase override

You just made the whole project local-only in step 1. If instead you want ONE phase's artifacts —
say, an architecture or ADR phase whose PLAN.md and REQUIREMENTS.md are worth sharing with the
team — committed while every other phase stays local, set a `phase_commit_docs` entry for that
phase's number instead of (or on top of) the project-wide switch:

```bash
msd-tools config-set planning.commit_docs false
msd-tools config-set phase_commit_docs.03 true
```

```json
{
  "planning": { "commit_docs": false },
  "phase_commit_docs": { "03": true }
}
```

Now `msd-tools query commit` commits phase 03's artifacts normally, and skips (with the
`skipped_commit_docs_phase_false`-or-`skipped_commit_docs_false` reason depending on which tier
decided) every other phase's — the project-wide setting from step 1 still governs everything
`phase_commit_docs` does not name.

A few things worth knowing before you rely on this:

- **The phase-id form doesn't matter.** `phase_commit_docs.3`, `phase_commit_docs.03`, and (if your
  project uses a `project_code`) `phase_commit_docs.PROJ-03` all resolve to the same entry — MSD
  normalizes the phase number before lookup, the same way it does everywhere else phase numbers are
  compared.
- **It only applies to a commit that names a phase-scoped file.** `msd-tools query commit` resolves
  the phase from the `--files` paths you pass it (via the `.planning/phases/<phase-dir>/…`
  segment). A commit that names no phase file — e.g. a bare `ROADMAP.md` update — has no phase to
  look up, so `phase_commit_docs` never applies to it and the project-wide setting governs, same as
  before this feature existed.
- **It's per phase, not per artifact.** You cannot commit a phase's ADR but suppress its SUMMARY
  within the same commit; the override applies to the whole phase.
- **Reverse direction works too.** With the project-wide default (`commit_docs: true`), set
  `phase_commit_docs.<phase-id> false` to suppress just one noisy execution phase while everything
  else commits normally.

Full precedence order (highest wins): `phase_commit_docs.<phase-id>` → explicit `commit_docs` /
`planning.commit_docs` → `.gitignore` auto-detect → the manifest default. See
[Configuration reference — per-phase override](../CONFIGURATION.md#per-phase-override-phase_commit_docs)
for the complete rules, including how a non-boolean value is handled.

## Pre-commit guard hook (optional)

Steps 1-4 stop **MSD's own** commit path from writing `.planning/`. They do not stop a plain
`git add -A` + `git commit` — run by hand, by a teammate, or by a script outside MSD's own
tooling — from staging and committing `.planning/` anyway. `msd-tools commit-docs-guard enable`
closes that specific gap by installing a `.git/hooks/pre-commit` hook that refuses any commit
staging `.planning/` files while `commit_docs` resolves to `false`. Resolution honors the full
precedence chain above — including a `phase_commit_docs.<phase-id>` override for the phase the
staged `.planning/` files belong to — the same resolution `msd-tools commit`/`query commit` uses,
so the hook never contradicts them.

This is opt-in only — no MSD install path wires it in for you:

```bash
msd-tools commit-docs-guard enable
```

If a commit would violate `commit_docs`, the hook blocks it and names the staged files and the
`git reset` command to unstage them, matching `msd-tools check-commit`'s own message. Remove it
with:

```bash
msd-tools commit-docs-guard disable
```

**Enable refuses rather than guesses** in three situations, each reported with a reason:

- **An existing `pre-commit` hook you didn't get from MSD.** The file is left byte-for-byte
  unchanged; wire the guard into it by hand (`msd-tools check-commit --raw` is the check to add).
- **`core.hooksPath` is already configured.** A hook written to `.git/hooks/pre-commit` would
  never run in that case, so nothing is written; add the same check to whatever hook lives at the
  configured path instead.
- **The current directory is not a git repository.**

`enable`/`disable` are idempotent and safe to script: a second `enable` is a no-op that reports
success rather than duplicating content, and `disable` on a repo with no hook installed succeeds
rather than erroring. The hook is identified by a stable `# msd-core:commit-docs-guard` marker
line inside the file, checked by presence rather than exact content — appending your own line to
the installed hook afterward does not make MSD stop recognizing it as its own. In a linked
worktree or submodule (where `.git` is a file, not a directory), `enable` resolves the real,
shared hooks directory via git itself rather than assuming a literal `.git/hooks` path.

Windows note: the hook runs under Git Bash, same as any other git hook. MSD's own remote test
matrix is Linux-only, so this specific behavior is verified on Linux/macOS plus code review, not
by an automated Windows run.

## If you need parallel executors, use the other posture instead

Everything above keeps `.planning/` out of git, and that has one consequence worth knowing before
you commit to it: **parallel executor worktrees stop working.** A worktree is checked out from a
commit, so an untracked or ignored `.planning/` does not exist inside it and the executor has no
`PLAN.md` to read. Untracked planning also has no git history, so `/msd-undo` and revert paths have
nothing to restore.

If what you actually want is "planning is versioned locally, but never reaches the remote", leave
`commit_docs` on and set `planning.pr_strict: true` instead — see
[Publish PRs without planning artifacts](publish-prs-without-planning-artifacts.md).

## Related

- [Publish PRs without planning artifacts](publish-prs-without-planning-artifacts.md)
- [Configuration reference — `planning.commit_docs`](../CONFIGURATION.md#planning-settings)
- [Configuration reference — auto-detection and the tracked-files caveat](../CONFIGURATION.md#auto-detection)
- [Configuration reference — per-phase override](../CONFIGURATION.md#per-phase-override-phase_commit_docs)
- [Configuration reference — the pre-commit guard hook](../CONFIGURATION.md#commit_docs-pre-commit-guard-opt-in)