feat(gazelle): default-on .gitignore-skipping plus opt-in untracked-file skipping

[gregmagolan]

Summary

Two new boolean flags on aspect gazelle that close gaps in how gazelle interacts with git state, plus a couple of adjacent fixes to the status surface.

--ignore-gitignored-files (default true)

Gazelle's native ignore mechanisms (.bazelignore literal paths, REPO.bazel ignore_directories([...]) dir globs, # gazelle:exclude per-package directives) don't honor .gitignore. Without this flag every gitignored dir users want gazelle to skip — bazel-out/, node_modules/, .venv/, __pycache__/, build artifacts — has to be mirrored elsewhere. Defaults on to close that gap automatically: queries git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard --directory -z, dedups results against .bazelignore + REPO.bazel + directory symlinks gazelle doesn't follow anyway, and passes each surviving entry as --gazelle-flag=-exclude=<path>. Pass --ignore-gitignored-files=false to opt out (rare — e.g., a gitignored file that gazelle's indexing needs to see).

--ignore-untracked-files (default false)

Symmetric mechanism for untracked files. When set, queries git ls-files --others --exclude-standard --directory -z and passes each result as --gazelle-flag=-exclude=<path> (same dedup pipeline). Off by default because untracked files are typically work-in-progress the user wants gazelle to process; turn it on in pre-commit / pre-push hooks where you want only committed-state rules.

Adjacent fixes / cleanups

• Status surface no longer renders "❌ 0 BUILD files out of date" with an empty file list during live runs — gazelle's details template was missing the is_running short-circuit that format already has. Now shows 🔄 Gazelle task in progress... during the bazel build / diff phase.
• Configuration row keys are sentence case across both gazelle_results and format_results: Soft fail, Scope all on change, Changed file pattern (previously kebab-case).
• Each Ignore-* row surfaces only when its value departs from default so a stock invocation has a clean Config row.
• trace.log the exact subprocess invocation (gazelle binary + every resolved flag / exclude / dir; same for format).

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Suggested release notes

• New aspect gazelle --ignore-gitignored-files flag, defaulting on. Gazelle doesn't honor .gitignore natively. With this default-on, the task queries git ls-files --others --ignored --exclude-standard --directory on each invocation and passes each result as --gazelle-flag=-exclude=<path>, so bazel-out/, node_modules/, .venv/, __pycache__/, build artifacts no longer get walked. Pass --ignore-gitignored-files=false to opt out. No-op on clean CI checkouts; deduped against .bazelignore + REPO.bazel ignore_directories() so we don't restate what gazelle already skips.
• New aspect gazelle --ignore-untracked-files flag, defaulting off. Symmetric mechanism for untracked files. Useful in pre-commit / pre-push hooks where you don't want BUILD rules generated for files you haven't checked in yet.
• Both flags fall back to a no-op with a WARNING if git ls-files fails.
• Gazelle's status-surface details body no longer reads "❌ 0 BUILD files out of date" with an empty file list during the bazel build / diff phase — live renders show a 🔄 Gazelle task in progress... placeholder.
• Status-check Configuration row keys are sentence case (Soft fail, Scope all on change, Changed file pattern, …) — previously kebab-case.
• With ASPECT_DEBUG=1, aspect gazelle and aspect format log a trace line with the exact subprocess command they're about to spawn (resolved flags / excludes / dirs / file list).

Test plan

• Existing AXL cases pass: 779 total (763 before this PR + 16 new for parse_bazelignore and parse_repo_bazel_ignore_directories).
• Snapshot suites green: gazelle-template (17 scenarios, including the new _make_ignore_untracked and _make_ignore_gitignored_disabled Configuration-row coverage), PR-comment (17), BK annotation (21), plus the standard template / format / lint / delivery suites.
• Manual: in a git working tree with at least one untracked file (and a .gitignore-matched file on disk), run aspect gazelle and confirm the rendered Configuration row matches expectations and that the affected dirs don't get BUILD rules updated.

[aspect-workflows]

✨ Aspect Workflows Tasks

📅 Fri May 15 19:14:30 UTC 2026

✅ 16 successful tasks

• ✅ build (build-gha) · ⏱ 1m 20s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Bazel build complete (161 built)
• ✅ build (build-gha-debug) · ⏱ 2m 59s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Bazel build complete (161 built)
• ✅ format (buildifier-gha) · ⏱ 1m 23s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Format complete (clean)
• ✅ format (buildifier-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 23s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Format complete (clean)
• ✅ delivery (delivery-gha) · ⏱ 1m 54s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Delivery complete (1 delivered)
• ✅ delivery (delivery-gha-debug) · ⏱ 5m 8s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Delivery complete (1 delivered)
• ✅ format (format-gha) · ⏱ 1m 22s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Format complete (clean)
• ✅ format (format-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 28s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Format complete (clean)
• ✅ gazelle (gazelle-from-source-gha) · ⏱ 1m 19s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Gazelle complete (clean)
• ✅ gazelle (gazelle-from-source-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 10s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Gazelle complete (clean)
• ✅ gazelle (gazelle-gha) · ⏱ 1m 15s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Gazelle complete (clean)
• ✅ gazelle (gazelle-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 13s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Gazelle complete (clean)
• ✅ lint (lint-gha) · ⏱ 1m 26s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Lint complete (clean)
• ✅ lint (lint-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 19s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Lint complete (clean)
• ✅ test (test-gha) · ⏱ 1m 13s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Bazel test complete (25/25 passed · 25 cached)
• ✅ test (test-gha-debug) · ⏱ 1m 23s · ✨ Aspect · 🐙 GitHub Actions · ☑️ Check
  💬 Bazel test complete (25/25 passed · 25 cached)

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[jbedard]

This conflicts with the aspect-gazelle gitignore extension (# gazelle:gitignore enabled) and the PR summary is quite inaccurate AI slop.

Please do not merge such a thing into the CLI or AXL.