[slominskir-coding-agent]

Change

The GitLab sync reads every project in the acc group and its subgroups, so it suggests adding the throwaway projects in acc/scratch. A new CSV setting, GITLAB_SYNC_EXCLUDE_CSV (Setup → Settings, tag SYNC), lists the GitLab paths the sync leaves out:

• a group, with all its subgroups and projects (acc/scratch), or a single project (acc/ops/demo);
• matched on each project's path_with_namespace, without regard to case or surrounding slashes; acc/scratch does not leave out a sibling such as acc/scratchpad;
• default acc/scratch.

Software from an excluded path that is already in the registry now shows in the sync's Remove list, like any other project the sync no longer finds.

Upgrade

Run container/oracle/upgrade/2.4.0_gitlab_sync_exclude.sql once on existing databases (as SIM_OWNER); it inserts the setting. Until it runs, the sync leaves out nothing, as before. The 2.4.0 name assumes this ships in the next minor release; rename it if the number differs.

Checks

• ./gradlew build (Spotless, PMD, SpotBugs, unit tests): passes. New unit tests in SyncServiceParseTest: excludedGitLabGroupsAndProjectsAreLeftOut (a group's project, a project in a subgroup with different case, a listed project, and a similarly named sibling that is kept; entries trimmed of blanks and slashes) and noExcludeSettingExcludesNothing (no setting, no list, a project without a path).
• ./gradlew integrationTest against this branch's rebuilt app: 52 tests, all pass, including the new PagesIT.settingsListTheGitLabSyncExclusions (the admin Settings page lists the setting with acc/scratch).
• Upgrade script: deleted the setting from this worktree's database and ran the script; it inserted the row matching 04_settings.sql.
• App log: only the errors the integration tests cause on purpose (a duplicate name and edits refused to read-only and anonymous users).
• Not checked: a real sync against code.jlab.org (the stack's GitLab token is a placeholder and the VM can't reach it), so the acc/scratch path is assumed from the group the sync reads. There is no page change beyond the new settings row.

Decisions

• A setting, not code: an admin can add or remove paths without a release. The settings table needs a value, so "exclude nothing" means setting a path no project has; the setting's description says so.
• Paths, not names or topics: a group path covers every project under it, including ones added later, and project names can repeat across groups.
• Filtered in sim, not the API query: GitLab's group projects API has no parameter to exclude a subgroup.

Prepared-by: Anthropic Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5

🤖 Generated with Claude Code