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The Repository Selector is a powerful filtering mechanism that tells Overcut which Git repositories or projects a scheduled workflow should operate on.
The repository selector can be used to select both code repositories and ticket projects/ repositories.
See the Scheduled Workflows guide for an end-to-end walkthrough of cron triggers and execution modes.

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Field Reference

Overcut applies an upper bound of 100 repositories per evaluation to protect your workspace from accidental fan-out. If your selector matches more than 100 repos, only the first 100 (sorted alphabetically) will be used and a warning appears in the UI and execution logs.

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Authoring Selectors in the UI

  1. Open Workflow Builder and add/edit a Trigger or Action that supports selectors (e.g., a Scheduled trigger in Per-Repository mode).
  2. In the Repository Selector panel, fill in the fields described above.\ Repository selector panel
  3. Click Save. The selector definition is now embedded in the workflow version and will be evaluated at runtime.
namePattern matches the full repository name including the organization (e.g., acme/web-app)
Use regex alternation (pattern1|pattern2) to match multiple patterns

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Real-World Selector Examples

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Best Practices & Gotchas

  1. Patterns Match Full Names – Remember that namePattern and excludePattern match against the full repository name (e.g., myorg/my-repo), not just the repo name. To filter by organization, use ^orgname/ in your pattern.
  2. Use Regex Alternation for Multiple Patterns – To match multiple patterns, use regex alternation syntax: ^(pattern1|pattern2|pattern3). For example: ^acme/(web-.*|api-.*) matches repos in the acme org starting with web- or api-.
  3. Start Narrow, Then Broaden – Begin with tight patterns, verify run counts, then relax filters if needed.
  4. Avoid Overly Broad Selectors – Matching every repo can create hundreds of workflow runs. Use specific patterns and purpose flags to limit scope.
  5. Monitor Execution Volume – Check Execution History after enabling a new schedule to confirm expected run counts.
  6. Combine with Repository Mapping – For ticket-triggered workflows, prefer Repository Mapping and repo.identify over broad selectors.

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Further Reading