feat(backend): skip getCommitHashForRefName for empty repos (#914)

brendan-kellam · claude · github-actions[bot] · web-flow · commit b274daf40fdb · 2026-02-20T12:19:35.000-08:00
* feat(backend): skip getCommitHashForRefName for empty repos Adds isRepoEmpty utility to git.ts and uses it in repoIndexManager to avoid calling getCommitHashForRefName on repos with no commits, preventing noisy debug log output for empty repositories. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * chore: update CHANGELOG for #914 Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * fix(backend): add isRepoEmpty mock to repoIndexManager tests Co-authored-by: Brendan Kellam <brendan-kellam@users.noreply.github.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-authored-by: claude[bot] <41898282+claude[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Brendan Kellam <brendan-kellam@users.noreply.github.com>
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+- Skip calling `getCommitHashForRefName` for empty repositories to avoid noisy debug log output. [#914](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/914)
+
 ## [4.11.4] - 2026-02-20
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/packages/backend/src/git.ts b/packages/backend/src/git.ts
@@ -415,6 +415,23 @@ export const getLatestCommitTimestamp = async ({
     }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Returns true if the git repository at the given path has no commits.
+ */
+export const isRepoEmpty = async ({
+    path,
+}: {
+    path: string,
+}): Promise<boolean> => {
+    const git = createGitClientForPath(path);
+    try {
+        const result = await git.raw(['log', '--all', '-1', '--format=%H']);
+        return result.trim() === '';
+    } catch {
+        return true;
+    }
+}
+
 /**
  * Writes or updates the commit-graph file for the repository.
  * This pre-computes commit metadata to speed up operations like
diff --git a/packages/backend/src/repoIndexManager.test.ts b/packages/backend/src/repoIndexManager.test.ts
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ vi.mock('./git.js', () => ({
     getCommitHashForRefName: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue('abc123'),
     getLatestCommitTimestamp: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(new Date()),
     isPathAValidGitRepoRoot: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(true),
+    isRepoEmpty: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false),
     unsetGitConfig: vi.fn(),
     upsertGitConfig: vi.fn(),
 }));
diff --git a/packages/backend/src/repoIndexManager.ts b/packages/backend/src/repoIndexManager.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import { Redis } from 'ioredis';
 import micromatch from 'micromatch';
 import Redlock, { ExecutionError } from 'redlock';
 import { INDEX_CACHE_DIR, WORKER_STOP_GRACEFUL_TIMEOUT_MS } from './constants.js';
-import { cloneRepository, fetchRepository, getBranches, getCommitHashForRefName, getLatestCommitTimestamp, getLocalDefaultBranch, getTags, isPathAValidGitRepoRoot, unsetGitConfig, upsertGitConfig } from './git.js';
+import { cloneRepository, fetchRepository, getBranches, getCommitHashForRefName, getLatestCommitTimestamp, getLocalDefaultBranch, getTags, isPathAValidGitRepoRoot, isRepoEmpty, unsetGitConfig, upsertGitConfig } from './git.js';
 import { captureEvent } from './posthog.js';
 import { PromClient } from './promClient.js';
 import { RepoWithConnections, Settings } from "./types.js";
@@ -531,7 +531,8 @@ export class RepoIndexManager {
 
             if (jobData.type === RepoIndexingJobType.INDEX) {
                 const { path: repoPath } = getRepoPath(jobData.repo);
-                const commitHash = await getCommitHashForRefName({
+                const isEmpty = await isRepoEmpty({ path: repoPath });
+                const commitHash = isEmpty ? undefined : await getCommitHashForRefName({
                     path: repoPath,
                     refName: 'HEAD',
                 });
