Function getWatchTargets

src/utils/settings/changeDetector.ts:180–250

* Collect settings file paths and their deduplicated parent directories to watch. * Returns all potential settings file paths for watched directories, not just those * that exist at init time, so that newly-created files are also detected.

()

 * that exist at init time, so that newly-created files are also detected.
 */
async function getWatchTargets(): Promise<{
  dirs: string[]
  settingsFiles: Set<string>
  dropInDir: string | null
}> {
  // Map from directory to all potential settings files in that directory
  const dirToSettingsFiles = new Map<string, Set<string>>()
  const dirsWithExistingFiles = new Set<string>()

  for (const source of SETTING_SOURCES) {
    // Skip flagSettings - they're provided via CLI and won't change during the session.
    // Additionally, they may be temp files in $TMPDIR which can contain special files
    // (FIFOs, sockets) that cause the file watcher to hang or error.
    // See: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/16469
    if (source === 'flagSettings') {
      continue
    }
    const path = getSettingsFilePathForSource(source)
    if (!path) {
      continue
    }

    const dir = platformPath.dirname(path)

    // Track all potential settings files in each directory
    if (!dirToSettingsFiles.has(dir)) {
      dirToSettingsFiles.set(dir, new Set())
    }
    dirToSettingsFiles.get(dir)!.add(path)

    // Check if file exists - only watch directories that have at least one existing file
    try {
      const stats = await stat(path)
      if (stats.isFile()) {
        dirsWithExistingFiles.add(dir)
      }
    } catch {
      // File doesn't exist, that's fine
    }
  }

  // For watched directories, include ALL potential settings file paths
  // This ensures files created after init are also detected
  const settingsFiles = new Set<string>()
  for (const dir of dirsWithExistingFiles) {
    const filesInDir = dirToSettingsFiles.get(dir)
    if (filesInDir) {
      for (const file of filesInDir) {
        settingsFiles.add(file)
      }
    }
  }

  // Also watch the managed-settings.d/ drop-in directory for policy fragments.
  // We add it as a separate watched directory so chokidar's depth:0 watches
  // its immediate children (the .json files). Any .json file inside it maps
  // to the 'policySettings' source.
  let dropInDir: string | null = null