Roo cannot find the .tools directory in the project root.

[zhang157686]

App Version

v3.20.0+

API Provider

Google Gemini

Model Used

It's not related to the model.

🔁 Steps to Reproduce

I have a .tools directory, and I need Roo to help me check what tools are available in this directory. However, Roo cannot find the .tools directory, and I don't want to remove the dot (.) in front of the directory name.

💥 Outcome Summary

I have a rough idea of what the issue might be — it's likely because the list_files tool filters out .*, which prevents files and directories starting with a dot from being accessed. However, I do need Roo to access some directories that start with a dot. Is there any way to work around this? This kind of blanket restriction is making it impossible for me to continue working.

📄 Relevant Logs or Errors (Optional)

[dosubot]

Hi @zhang157686! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Roo-Code team.

You’re right that Roo’s list_files tool often filters out directories starting with a dot, especially if they’re matched by .gitignore or .rooignore patterns, or if they’re considered “common large directories” like .git or node_modules. There isn’t a documented config option to force inclusion of dot-directories globally, but there are a couple of workarounds:

• If your .rooignore or .gitignore has a pattern that matches .tools (like .*/ or .tools/), you can add an exception by adding !.tools/ to your .rooignore file. This tells Roo not to ignore .tools, even if a broader pattern exists. The syntax is identical to .gitignore, so exceptions work the same way docs.
• When you directly @mention a file or folder (e.g., @.tools or @.tools/toolname), Roo will bypass .rooignore and .gitignore checks and fetch the content for context anyway docs.

If you try these and Roo still doesn’t show .tools, it may be due to hardcoded exclusions for certain dot-directories (like .git), but .tools shouldn’t be one of them unless it’s matched by an ignore pattern. Let me know if you have a .rooignore or .gitignore entry that might be affecting this, or if direct @mentions still don’t work.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[zhang157686]

Even though I added !.tools/** to the .rooignore or .gitignore file, it still doesn't help.

[daniel-lxs]

The issue is caused by a global rule that blocks all hidden files and directories, which prevents .rooignore from whitelisting them. This rule is hardcoded in src/services/glob/constants.ts and src/services/glob/list-files.ts.

To fix this, we could remove the hardcoded exclusions and instead set a default ignore pattern for .* inside RooIgnoreController. This change would allow users to override the default behavior by adding negated patterns (e.g., !.tools) to their .rooignore file. The necessary modification would be in the loadRooIgnore method in src/core/ignore/RooIgnoreController.ts.

[zhang157686]

此问题是由一条全局规则引起的，该规则会阻止所有隐藏文件和目录，从而阻止.rooignore将其列入白名单。此规则已硬编码在src/services/glob/constants.ts和 中src/services/glob/list-files.ts。

.*为了解决这个问题，我们可以删除硬编码的排除项，并为内部设置默认的忽略模式RooIgnoreController。此更改允许用户通过在文件!.tools中添加否定模式（例如 ）来覆盖默认行为。必要的修改将在中的方法.rooignore中进行。loadRooIgnoresrc/core/ignore/RooIgnoreController.ts

Great! If we can add exclusions for certain dot-prefixed files or directories in the .rooignore file, that would be the best of both worlds.

[IngLP]

I also need this!