[bug] Deleting a workspace leaves its git branch behind, so reusing the workspace name creates a mismatched branch #6380

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1. github-actions commented on Aug 12, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Aug 12, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

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   Summary

   The report is consistent with the code. Local branch deletion on workspace destroy is strictly opt-in (deleteBranch), and the non-interactive surface used by superset ws delete hardcodes it to false with no CLI flag and no way to observe the leftover ref — so the branch always survives, and the next create with the same name collides with it and gets deduplicated to -2/-3. The desktop "Workspace not found showing the old workspace ID" looks like a second, separate bug rather than the same symptom: deleted workspaces are tombstoned (not deleted) rows, and the create-time branch idempotency lookup does not exclude tombstones, so a create that resolves to a tombstoned row's branch returns the old, archived workspace id, which the renderer then navigates to and the workspace list can't resolve.

   Affected code

   Branch survives the delete

   • packages/cli/src/commands/workspaces/delete/command.ts:9-12 — options are only --host / --local; there is no branch flag, and command.ts:35 calls workspace.delete.mutate({ id }).
   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspace/workspace.ts:178-192 — the legacy external surface (CLI/SDK/MCP) hardcodes deleteBranch: false, force: true, teardownMode: "best-effort".
   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspace-cleanup/workspace-cleanup.ts:514-532 — step 5 runs only when input.deleteBranch is set, and pushes a warning only when the delete throws. With deleteBranch: false there is no code path that can produce a warning about the surviving ref, which matches the observed "warnings": [].
   • packages/host-service/src/runtime/archived-workspace-reconcile.ts:52-57 — the crash reconciler also passes deleteBranch: false, so nothing else reclaims it later.
   • Desktop's checkbox is backed by a preference that defaults to false (apps/desktop/src/renderer/routes/_authenticated/providers/CollectionsProvider/dashboardSidebarLocal/schema.ts:360), so the same leftover happens in the app unless the user opts in.

   The -2 suffix

   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspaces/workspaces.ts:840-874 — for a typed --branch dupe-repro, planBranchSource looks for a ref literally named dupe-repro. The leftover ref is the prefixed cry0genic/dupe-repro, so no existing branch is found → usedExistingBranch: false → the project prefix is applied → deduplicateBranchName("cry0genic/dupe-repro", existing).
   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspace-creation/utils/sanitize-branch.ts:35-38 — appends -2, -3, … against the live branch list. input.name is never deduplicated, which is exactly the reported name/branch divergence (and the worktree dir becomes .../cry0genic/dupe-repro-2, since the path is derived from the resolved branch at workspaces.ts:943-947).

   Desktop "Workspace not found" with the old ID

   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspaces/workspaces.ts:156-170 — findExistingWorkspaceByBranch matches on (projectId, branch) with no isNull(workspaces.archivedAt) filter, so it can return a tombstoned row and workspaces.ts:907-914 sets alreadyExists = true on it.
   • Compare packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspace-creation/shared/adopt-existing-worktree.ts:123, :142, :223 — the adopt path does exclude tombstones ("Tombstones aren't phantoms — same-branch history must survive re-creating a workspace on that branch"). The two lookups disagree.
   • packages/host-service/src/workspaces/local-workspace-store.ts:227-254 — delete sets archivedAt; the row is never purged.
   • apps/desktop/.../useSubmitWorkspace/useSubmitWorkspace.ts:166-183 — "The server can resolve the optimistic workspace to a different canonical id; follow it only if we're still on the optimistic route" → the renderer navigates to whatever id create returned, including a tombstone's.
   • packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/workspace/workspace.ts:43-52 — list filters archivedAt IS NULL by default, so the layout at apps/desktop/src/renderer/routes/_authenticated/_dashboard/v2-workspace/layout.tsx:83-96 finds nothing and renders WorkspaceNotFoundState with that stale id.

   This second path triggers whenever the create resolves to the exact branch string of a tombstoned row — e.g. typing or picking the full prefixed cry0genic/dupe-repro (which the branch picker still offers, precisely because step 5 left the ref behind). If in your desktop repro you left the branch auto-derived from the name, dedupe would have produced -2 and a fresh row instead, and the not-found screen would need a different explanation — the create response (workspace.id, alreadyExists) and the branch shown in the modal at submit time would settle it.

   Ruled out

   • Worktree removal and teardown: step 3b removes the worktree and verifies deregistration (workspace-cleanup.ts:465-493), consistent with "worktree directories are removed correctly".
   • gitDeleteBranchTask itself (packages/host-service/src/workers/tasks/git.ts:158-174) is fine — it probes branch --list and then branch -D. It simply is never invoked on this path.

   Reproduction

   CLI/host level, in the style of packages/host-service/test/integration/workspace-create-delete.integration.test.ts:

   // 1. leftover branch
   const first = await scenario.host.trpc.workspaces.create.mutate({
     projectId: scenario.projectId, name: "dupe-repro", branch: "dupe-repro",
   });
   await scenario.host.trpc.workspace.delete.mutate({ id: first.workspace.id });
   expect((await scenario.repo.git.branchLocal()).all)
     .not.toContain(first.workspace.branch);            // currently FAILS
   
   // 2. suffix drift
   const second = await scenario.host.trpc.workspaces.create.mutate({
     projectId: scenario.projectId, name: "dupe-repro", branch: "dupe-repro",
   });
   expect(second.workspace.branch).toBe(first.workspace.branch); // currently -2
   
   // 3. tombstone idempotency (independent of 1 & 2)
   const third = await scenario.host.trpc.workspaces.create.mutate({
     projectId: scenario.projectId, name: "dupe-repro",
     branch: first.workspace.branch,                    // exact archived branch
   });
   expect(third.workspace.id).not.toBe(first.workspace.id);      // currently FAILS

   Test 3 is the one that reproduces the desktop symptom at the host level, and it fails independently of whether the branch is cleaned up.

   Suggested fix direction

   1. Never return a tombstone from create — add isNull(workspaces.archivedAt) to findExistingWorkspaceByBranch (workspaces.ts:161-168) so it matches adoptExistingWorktree's existing convention. This is the smallest, highest-value change: it stops the app from routing users to a deleted workspace id.
   2. Always report the surviving branch. In workspace-cleanup.ts:514-532, when deleteBranch is false (or the delete is skipped), probe the ref and push a warning naming it — the branch --list check inside gitDeleteBranchTask is already the right primitive to factor out. That alone satisfies the "at minimum" ask and makes the CLI's empty warnings array honest.
   3. Give the CLI the opt-in. Add --delete-branch to packages/cli/src/commands/workspaces/delete/command.ts and thread it through workspace.delete's input (defaulting to false to preserve the current contract) into destroyWorkspace.
   4. Optional, for the "delete when no unmerged work" variant: workspaceCleanup.inspect already computes hasUnpushedCommits (workspace-cleanup.ts:123-136), so an auto-delete could be gated on it — though note step 5 deliberately uses -D today because the checkbox is the consent, so any auto-delete should be a distinct policy rather than a change to that flag's semantics.
2. Kitenite

   added a commit that references this issue on Aug 19, 2026

   fix(host-service): don't reuse a tombstoned workspace on same-branch …

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   e483672
3. andyst-dev

   added a commit that references this issue on Sep 2, 2026

   fix(host-service,cli): release a workspace's git branch on delete so …

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   743a0ac
4. andyst-dev

   added 2 commits that reference this issue on Sep 11, 2026

   fix(host-service,cli): release a workspace's git branch on delete so …

   ...

   d785bd1

   fix(host-service,cli): release a workspace's git branch on delete so …

   ...

   2dc549d
5. g-bastianelli

   added a commit that references this issue on Oct 12, 2026

   feat(cli): add --delete-branch to workspaces archive

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   a5f4ad4