Glob pattern issue

[DavidWells]

The following command

    "docs": "md-magic ./docs/**/*.md",

on the file tree

└── root
    └── docs
        ├── archive
        │   ├── brainstorm-caching-idea.md *
        │   ├── cache-issues.md *
        │   ├── config-parsing-changes.md *
        │   ├── cross-project-dependency-detection.md *
        │   └── multi-project-type-design.md *
        ├── chats
        │   └── manifest-ideation.md *
        ├── _flow.md *
        ├── caching.md *
        ├── cycle-detection.md *
        ├── deleted-projects.md *
        ├── deploy.md *
        ├── deployment-logic.md *
        ├── deployment-types.md *
        ├── development.md *
        ├── extractors.md *
        ├── last-successful-run.md *
        ├── manifest.md *
        ├── preflight-checks.md *
        ├── project-types.md *
        ├── running-tests.md *
        ├── serverless-plugin-flow.md *
        ├── state.md *
        ├── testing.md *
        └── validation.md *

Results in

Files scanned:           6
[
  'root/docs/archive/brainstorm-caching-idea.md',
  'root/docs/archive/cache-issues.md',
  'root/docs/archive/config-parsing-changes.md',
  'root/docs/archive/cross-project-dependency-detection.md',
  'root/docs/archive/multi-project-type-design.md',
  'root/docs/chats/manifest-ideation.md'
]

Files with transforms:   0
📑  Execution plan:

No transforms to run. Exiting markdown magic early.
If you think this is incorrect, verify your comment blocks in your src and the settings in your config.

💫  Results:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ✔  Markdown Magic Done. 0.01 seconds

This seems wrong why are we missing the md files at docs level?

[DavidWells]

thanks @claude opus can you look at this?

We'd expect that glob pattern to match all md files in that docs dir no?

[github-actions]

💬 Claude Code execution complete ✅

ℹ️ Analysis only (no code changes)

📊 Execution Info: Issue #114 | Next.js (105 files) | @DavidWells
ℹ️ Action Run: https://github.com/DavidWells/markdown-magic/actions/runs/20528615880

🚀 Automated management executed:

• ✅ Created: 2025-Dec

[github-actions]

Claude finished @DavidWells's task in 8m 4s —— View job

---

Glob Pattern Issue - Root Cause Identified

• Gather context and read codebase structure
• Understand the glob pattern issue
• Find where glob patterns are resolved to files
• Identify root cause and propose fix

---

Root Cause

The issue is shell glob expansion, not a bug in markdown-magic.

When you use this npm script:

"docs": "md-magic ./docs/**/*.md"

The shell (bash) expands ./docs/**/*.md before passing it to md-magic. By default, bash does not have globstar enabled, which means ** only matches subdirectory contents, not files at the current level.

Proof:

# Default bash behavior (without globstar):
$ echo ./docs/**/*.md
./docs/archive/brainstorm.md ./docs/chats/manifest.md

# With globstar enabled:
$ shopt -s globstar
$ echo ./docs/**/*.md  
./docs/_flow.md ./docs/archive/brainstorm.md ./docs/caching.md ./docs/chats/manifest.md ./docs/deploy.md

The smart-glob library used by markdown-magic handles **/*.md correctly (matching files at all levels). However, when the shell pre-expands the pattern, it only passes the subdirectory files to md-magic.

---

Solutions

Option 1: Quote the glob pattern (Recommended)

"docs": "md-magic './docs/**/*.md'"

or

"docs": "md-magic \"./docs/**/*.md\""

Quoting prevents shell expansion and allows md-magic to handle the glob internally.

Option 2: Use two patterns

"docs": "md-magic './docs/*.md' './docs/**/*.md'"

Option 3: Use brace expansion

"docs": "md-magic './docs/{,**/}*.md'"

This pattern matches both root-level and nested files.

---

Testing Confirmation

When I run md-magic with the quoted pattern on a directory structure matching your issue:

Files scanned:           8
[
  'docs/_flow.md',           ← root-level file ✓
  'docs/archive/brainstorm.md',
  'docs/archive/cache-issues.md',
  'docs/archive/config-parsing.md',
  'docs/caching.md',         ← root-level file ✓
  'docs/chats/manifest.md',
  'docs/cycle.md',           ← root-level file ✓
  'docs/deploy.md'           ← root-level file ✓
]

All files are correctly matched!

---

Summary

TL;DR: Add quotes around your glob pattern to prevent shell expansion:

"docs": "md-magic './docs/**/*.md'"

This is not a bug in markdown-magic - it's a common gotcha with shell glob patterns. The ** in bash without globstar behaves differently than in Node.js glob libraries.