[BUG] develop.watch initial_sync: true does not fire at container start #13725

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1. trinhchien commented on Apr 11, 2026

   

   trinhchien

   on Apr 11, 2026

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   I was able to reproduce this locally and traced it to initialSyncFiles() in pkg/compose/watch.go.

   initial_sync was filtering files using the image creation time, so existing host files could be skipped during startup sync if their mtime was older than the image. That matches the behavior described here: startup sync is empty, but change-triggered sync works after touching the file.

   I opened a fix here: #13728

   The patch removes the image-time filter for initial_sync and adds tests for both directory and single-file watch paths.

   👍React with 👍2Reacted by tsamarasinghe and micha
2. tsamarasinghe commented on May 20, 2026

   

   tsamarasinghe

   on May 20, 2026

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   any news about this ?

   👀React with 👀2Reacted by tsamarasinghe and micha
3. NathanSavageKaimai commented on Jul 28, 2026

   

   NathanSavageKaimai

   on Jul 28, 2026

   More actions

   Hey, I saw the PR was marked stale and closed. Is this still planned?

   For anyone finding this thread, one workaround is just to write a utility script that updates the timestamp on your source files.

   Heres mine

   /**
    * Must run AFTER `docker compose build` and BEFORE watch starts, e.g.:
    *   docker compose build
    *   node scripts/touch-src-for-watch.mjs
    *   docker compose watch
    */
   import { readdir, utimes } from 'node:fs/promises';
   import { join, sep } from 'node:path';
   
   const roots = ['apps', 'packages'];
   const skipDirs = new Set(['node_modules', 'dist', '.angular', 'coverage']);
   const syncSegments = new Set(['src', 'public']);
   const now = new Date();
   
   function isUnderSyncTree(path) {
     const parts = path.split(sep);
     return parts.some((part) => syncSegments.has(part));
   }
   
   async function walk(dir) {
     let entries;
     try {
       entries = await readdir(dir, { withFileTypes: true });
     } catch {
       return;
     }
   
     for (const entry of entries) {
       const path = join(dir, entry.name);
       if (entry.isDirectory()) {
         if (skipDirs.has(entry.name)) continue;
         await walk(path);
         continue;
       }
       if (isUnderSyncTree(path)) {
         await utimes(path, now, now);
       }
     }
   }
   
   for (const root of roots) {
     await walk(root);
   }
4. rocket-micha commented on Jul 31, 2026

   

   rocket-micha

   on Jul 31, 2026

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   Any plans here? 👀 This is a very frustrating bug
5. ousamabenyounes

   added a commit that references this issue on Aug 20, 2026

   Fix initial watch sync for existing files

   ...

   This issue will close once commit a515d44 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   a515d44
6. ndeloof

   closed this as completedin #14096on Aug 20, 2026
7. glours

   added a commit that references this issue on Aug 20, 2026

   fix(watch): sync all files on initial_sync, regardless of mtime

   ...

   This issue will close once commit ea8d9bc is merged into the 'main' branch.

   ea8d9bc