Repositories are added explicitly and cloned by lab into bare reference clones

A repository enters lab through the UI: the operator supplies a remote URL, picks a credential, and lab clones it itself into a lab-owned bare reference clone at <state>/repos/<repoID>.git (D8). There is no directory scanning and no linking of pre-existing checkouts. The clone runs as an async job — the API answers immediately with clone_status = cloning, progress streams over SSE (clone.progress, parsed from git's stderr percentages), and completion flips the row to ready with the detected default branch, or to error with the stderr tail (scrubbed of any credential material). A repo stuck in cloning after a crash is healed at startup: probe the bare dir anchored via --git-dir (never a walk-up from the daemon's cwd), re-derive the default branch from the bare HEAD symref offline, and mark ready or error accordingly — the DB is never the only witness to a clone that the filesystem contradicts.

Bare is the load-bearing property: a bare clone has no working tree, so it is structurally never dirty, and it is the native parent for the per-instance worktrees that M3 adds (reference ADR-0017 explains why every instance gets its own worktree). The clone also configures +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* at creation so refs/remotes/origin/<branch> exists from the start — worktree forks and merged-checks compare against the local origin ref.

Repo identity: name is derived from the URL basename and sanitized with the v0 scanner rules (only [A-Za-z0-9_-], . → _ — tmux parses . as window.pane, so a dot in a name breaks every session lookup), unique per instance, editable. forge_kind is detected from the remote host (the v0 detection table, extended with github.com → github); tracker_binding resolves at add time — auto becomes forge only when a forge host is detected and a forge credential is attached, else builtin (ADR-0006 explains why the credential is required). Incogni repos seed neutral branch patterns (issue-<N>, wip/) at creation; toggling incogni later never silently rewrites patterns. The five triage labels are seeded into the built-in tracker on create so a builtin-bound repo is immediately usable.

Removal is guarded like everything else that can destroy work: refused while a clone is running (409) unless forced, and from M3 on the same guarded-teardown rule that protects worktrees extends to repo deletion across all its worktrees, with an explicit force as the only override. The teardown tail runs on a detached context — a client disconnect must not brick a repo halfway through deletion.

Status

Accepted. Implements D8; shipped in M2 (worktree guard seam lands with M3).

Considered options

• Scan a projects directory (v0's model). Rejected by D8: explicit add is production behavior; scanning made v0 treat any stray .git marker as a project and forced worktrees out of the scanned root.
• Non-bare reference clone. Rejected: a working tree can get dirty and needs its own guarded lifecycle; bare cannot, and worktrees hang off it natively.
• Synchronous clone in the add request. Rejected: large repos would hold an HTTP request open for minutes; the async job + SSE progress model is also what the embedded-UI roadmap needs.