How to use lix to open a Repo

[jldec]

To load an SDK project you now need a lix repo e.g. for paraglide compile
The cases that need to be supported include

• browser scenario with lazy-loaded git repo and partially loaded working tree in memory-fs
• real-fs project directory inside a git repo somewhere in the tree
• real-fs project directory without a pre-initialized git repo
• snapshot repo in-memory for testing
• empty repo in-memory for testing

https://inlang.com/g/94ng94n4/guide-inlang-buildOwnApp#1-open-repository

Related discussions

• No longer use nodeishFs in loadProject. #2020 (comment)
• Sdk needs a repo reference instead of only the fs #1898
• SDK loadProject with repo instead of nodeishfs #2040 (review)

paraglide examples real FS, possibly without a .git repo

• https://github.com/opral/monorepo/blob/main/inlang/source-code/paraglide/paraglide-js/src/cli/commands/init.ts
• https://github.com/opral/monorepo/blob/main/inlang/source-code/paraglide/paraglide-js/src/cli/commands/compile.ts

// init
		const repoRoot = await findRepoRoot({
			nodeishFs: nodeFsPromises,
			path: process.cwd(),
		})

		// We are risking that there is no git repo. As long as we only use FS features and no Git features
		// from the SDK we should be fine.
		// Basic operations like `loadProject` should always work without a repo since it's used in CI.
		const repo = await openRepository(repoRoot ?? process.cwd(), {
			nodeishFs: nodeFsPromises,
		})


// compile
		const path = resolve(process.cwd(), options.project)
		logger.info(`Compiling inlang project at "${options.project}".`)

		const repoRoot = await findRepoRoot({ nodeishFs: nodeFsPromises, path })
		const repo = await openRepository(repoRoot || process.cwd(), {
			nodeishFs: nodeFsPromises,
		})

example test cases with an empty mock repo or a snapshot repo

• https://github.com/opral/monorepo/pull/2060/files#diff-0d60343fd6cc0079f3185c0adb5a4df993c263b76cc9b506db7f3f469dbd3537

// empty
		const repo = await mockRepo()

// snapshot
		const ciTestRepoSnapshot = JSON.parse(
			readFileSync(resolve(__dirname, "../mocks/ci-test-repo-no-shallow.json"), {
				encoding: "utf-8",
			})
		) as Snapshot

		const repo = await mockRepo({ fromSnapshot: ciTestRepoSnapshot })

[samuelstroschein]

@jldec i recommend sticking to the Problem - Proposal template for opening discussions.

It is hard(er) to follow what problem you are solving and what you are proposing.

[jldec]

I think you mean the default issue template @samuelstroschein
https://github.com/opral/monorepo/issues/new?template=default-template.md

I like that too - and generally like to use issues when we have some clarity about the problem

In this case I was not sure whether we have pinpointed the problem yet (at least in my mind), so I was using this to try to collect the pieces in one place.

[samuelstroschein]

  // Basic operations like `loadProject` should always work without a repo since it's used in CI.

We decided that opening a project always requires a repository from now on. Inlang is building features on top of lix, making access to lix, aka repos, a hard requirement.

EXAMPLE APIs

For production cases where no repo exists

const repoRoot = await findRepoRoot()

// if no repo exists, falling back to a virtual repository (that in this case syncs with the provided fs) 
const repo = await repoRoot ? openRepository(repoRoot, { nodeishFs }) : virtualRepo({ syncWithFs: nodeishFs })

For testing

 
const repo = await virtualRepo({ fromSnapshot: snapshot })

[jldec]

Are we introducingvirtualRepo for use cases where there is not a "real" git repo yet?

[jldec]

Decision for now - the 2 examples above are clear enough - we don't need to introduce a new lix virtualRepo() interface.

• mockRepo() is just for testing, and only supports memory-fs.
• openRepository() is safe to use with non-git operations (just working tree / fs operations) when there is no .git repo initialized.

thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

[janfjohannes]

outcome: we are on the same page regarding understanding what we want to achieve but will revisit when we have more concrete immediate needs