Config cannot request partial clones (git clone --filter) #576

Summary

A vcspull config cannot ask for a partial clone, so syncing a workspace of large repositories downloads every version of every file in their history. The git-only shallow and depth settings also sit in the VCS-neutral options: block, and editors have no schema to complete or check config files. Depends on partial clone support in libvcs, libvcs#553. Sized for one evening once that lands.

Problem

• No config key reaches git clone --filter, which keeps full history while leaving out file contents until a command needs them.
• shallow and depth only apply to git but live in options: (https://github.com/vcs-python/vcspull/blob/v1.67.0/src/vcspull/types.py#L133-L190), next to VCS-neutral rev and pin policy, so a git-only filter key has no natural home there.
• vcspull add and vcspull discover write entries through build_repo_entry (https://github.com/vcs-python/vcspull/blob/v1.67.0/src/vcspull/config.py#L1061). Any new layout has to be written there too, or freshly added entries start out deprecated.
• Mistakes in option values surface late: nothing checks them when the config loads, and there is no JSON Schema for editors. Related: Validate config schema #369 and Configuration: schema and migration system #376.

Prompt

Let a repo entry request a partial clone, give git-only settings their own block, and publish a JSON Schema for config files.

These must hold; everything after them is open:

• A repo entry can request a partial clone, and vcspull sync produces one: remote.origin.partialclonefilter is set and history blobs are missing.
• A malformed filter, or an unknown key in the git-only block, fails when the config loads and names the file, workspace root, repository, and key; it never fails mid-sync.
• Existing configs keep loading. Older locations of shallow and depth still work with a deprecation warning, and vcspull migrate rewrites them.
• vcspull add and vcspull discover write the current layout.
• The vcspull runtime never imports pydantic, so CLI startup does not get slower.
• The published schema and the config loader accept and reject the same entries, enforced by a test.

Direction, non-binding:

• Add a top-level git_options: {shallow, depth, filter} block on repo entries; rev stays in options:. filter takes git's spec string, a {kind: ..., <fields>} mapping, or a list of either, converted with libvcs coerce_filter and passed to GitSync as git_filter. git_options wins over options, which wins over top-level keys.
• Validate git_options at load, reporting errors as '<workspace>' -> '<repo>' -> git_options.filter[<i>].
• Warn on shallow/depth under options: and teach vcspull migrate both moves in one pass: top-level rev into options:, and shallow/depth from the top level or options: into git_options:. Also fix the existing deprecation warning, which joins the workspace key and repo name with no separator (~/codeflask).
• Make build_repo_entry write git_options.
• Add pydantic and jsonschema to the dev dependency group only. Add scripts/generate_schema.py to build the schema from the config TypedDicts, and commit its output under docs/_static/schemas/ so the docs site publishes it. Give the filter spec string a hint class that pydantic reads by method name, so no runtime import is needed, and have it validate with libvcs parse_filter. Test that the committed schema is current, and that shared fixtures give the same verdict through jsonschema against the schema file and through load_configs.
• Document git_options, partial clones, and the # yaml-language-server: $schema=... comment; add a MIGRATION note; give the CHANGES entries YAML examples.

Target shape:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://vcspull.git-pull.com/_static/schemas/vcspull.schema.json
~/code/:
  git:
    repo: git+https://github.com/git/git.git
    options:
      rev: v2.55.0
    git_options:
      filter: blob:none
  monorepo:
    repo: git+https://github.com/example/monorepo.git
    git_options:
      depth: 50
      filter:
        - blob:limit=1m
        - kind: tree
          depth: 3

Details that cost time to rediscover:

• pydantic (repo, v2.13.5 release notes, PyPI) rejects typing.TypedDict before Python 3.12, including TypedDicts imported from libvcs, so schema generator tests skip there. vcspull CI currently tests only Python 3.14.
• Validating at runtime with a pydantic TypeAdapter built at import was tried and dropped: import vcspull.cli took about 220 ms instead of 120 to 133 ms (Python 3.14 free-threaded, best of 12 to 18 runs), and one bad filter produced several stacked errors naming pydantic internals, with no file path.
• In JSON Schema, pattern and enum constrain strings only. Without "type": "string" on the string branch, a mapping such as {kind: nope} passes the filter union.
• The schema has to accept what vcspull writes: url: in place of repo:, metadata from vcspull import --sync, and remotes as URL strings or {fetch_url, push_url} mappings, where the loader requires both keys.
• pydantic's use_attribute_docstrings gives no descriptions for fields on TypedDicts split into Required and Optional bases, or on functional-syntax TypedDicts such as RepoPinDict.
• Validate the schema document itself with jsonschema (repo, v4.26.0 release notes, PyPI); asking pydantic again would miss every constraint the generator adds by hand.
• Differences the agreement test cannot cover yet: combine containing auto passes the schema but fails at load; an empty filter list fails the schema but loads; a misspelled repo-entry key fails the schema but is ignored at load.

Not doing:

• Changing an existing checkout's filter on sync.
• Detecting an existing checkout's filter in vcspull discover.
• Validating the whole config with pydantic at runtime.

Alternatives

Weighed and set aside:

• options.filter next to shallow and depth: no migration, but git-only settings stay mixed into the VCS-neutral block.
• A nested options.git: block migrated by vcspull fmt --write: splits migration across two commands, and fmt skips pinned entries, so those warn forever.
• Runtime pydantic validation: slower startup, broken on Python 3.10 and 3.11, and harder-to-read errors, as measured above.

References

• libvcs#553, partial clone support in libvcs
• Validate config schema #369 and Configuration: schema and migration system #376, config schema and migration
• yaml-language-server, which reads the $schema comment