`wxt dev` watches the entire project directory instead of only relevant folders
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Description
Describe the bug
When running wxt dev, it seems to watch (or at least read) the entire project directory. I noticed this because I store browser user profiles in a subfolder of the project:
// wxt.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
webExt: {
keepProfileChanges: true,
chromiumProfile: fs.realpathSync(".profile/chrome"),
firefoxProfile: fs.realpathSync(".profile/firefox")
},
});
This is a problem — these profile folders are huge and unrelated to the build process, yet wxt touches them during development.
Since the config already defines specific directories like these:
export default defineConfig({
srcDir: "src",
modulesDir: "wxt-modules",
outDir: "dist",
publicDir: "static",
entrypointsDir: "entries",
})
Why doesn't wxt just watch only these explicitly defined directories? Or at the very least, there should be an option to exclude certain paths from being watched.
Please fix this — watching the whole project is excessive and causes unnecessary performance issues.
Reproduction
// wxt.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
webExt: {
keepProfileChanges: true,
chromiumProfile: fs.realpathSync(".profile/chrome"),
firefoxProfile: fs.realpathSync(".profile/firefox")
},
});
Steps to reproduce
No response
System Info
System:
OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200
CPU: (2048) x64 Ontel(R) Core(TM) i8-80999K CPU @ 99.6GHz
Memory: 444.60 GB / 1023.92 GB
Binaries:
Node: 22.14.0 - E:\runtime\nodejs-bin\node-v22.14.0-win-x64\node.EXE
Yarn: 1.22.21 - E:\runtime\nodejs-data\global\yarn.CMD
npm: 11.1.0 - E:\runtime\nodejs-bin\node-v22.14.0-win-x64\npm.CMD
pnpm: 7.26.3 - E:\runtime\nodejs-data\global\pnpm.CMD
Browsers:
Internet Explorer: 11.0.26200.5001
npmPackages:
wxt: ^0.20.6 => 0.20.7
Used Package Manager
npm
Validations
- Read the Contributing Guidelines.
- Read the docs.
- Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
- Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
- The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the issue with the shown wxt.config.ts and wxt dev, using the .profile directories as the irrelevant paths to observe. Trace the development watcher behavior and verify that configured project directories remain watched while browser profile folders are no longer scanned; confirm the result with a focused regression test if the repository provides one.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- node.js, typescript
- Domain
- build-system, devtools, performance
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100