Recipes no longer applied after upgrading from 6.26 to 6.27+

[baflQA]

What version of OpenRewrite are you using?

6.26.0 updated to 6.27.0 and/or 6.28.1

• Maven plugin 6.28.1
• rewrite-module v1.2.3

How are you running OpenRewrite?

I am using the Maven plugin, and my project is a multi module project.

 <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.openrewrite.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>rewrite-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>6.28.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <activeRecipes>
                        <recipe>org.openrewrite.java.RemoveUnusedImports</recipe>
                        <recipe>org.openrewrite.java.OrderImports</recipe>
                    </activeRecipes>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

What is the smallest, simplest way to reproduce the problem?

I have a script which runs openapi-generator-cli to generate dtos from my api-specs.
There are some imports added from templates, which are not required for each generated file.
I use open-rewrite plugin to clean the imports up.
After upgrading to 6.27.0 open rewrite maven plugin stopped removing the imports.

• Somehow I've got a feeling that the issue is with the rewrite core itself, maybe caused by Track additional Git object information rewrite#6347

When I stage and commit generated files, and then apply the open rewrite recipes, the imports will be cleaned up again.

[timtebeek]

Thanks for the report and helpful link to possibly related work. I don't know the specifics to that earlier work too well, or if we'd indeed expect this to manifest in this way. It's always a balance with some folks expecting changes on untracked files whilst others do not want those changed because of a likely inability to apply patch files. It sounds like you've maybe found a way to work around this? Or is that not tenable longer term?

[baflQA]

Yeah, I managed to find a workaround - committing the generated DTOs before running OpenRewrite does the trick. When there are no uncommitted changes, the imports get cleaned up properly.
That said, I was a bit surprised by this behavioral change between 6.26.0 and 6.28.1, especially since it's a minor version bump. It's quite a significant shift in how the tool works in practice. I'm wondering if this might be:

• Something that could benefit from being documented more explicitly?
• Or perhaps the behavior around uncommitted files is still being refined?

Either way, I think it would be really helpful if this kind of change was either clearly explained in the release notes/migration guides, or handled more consistently by the plugin itself. It would save folks from having to adjust their workflows unexpectedly.
Really appreciate all the work you're putting into this plugin - it's been a huge help for our project! Just thought it was worth bringing this up so maybe the documentation or behavior could be clarified for future releases.