GDP treats ZIP transfer as a bounded repository workflow rather than a raw archive extraction shortcut. Export respects repository ignore policy, import validates archive paths and selected entries, and GDP prepares rollback protection before overwriting or creating repository files.
Understand what repository ZIP export includes
GDP repository ZIP export is intended to package shareable repository content, not every local byte under the working directory. The export path applies repository ignore policy, including .gitignore and .gdpignore, so ignored local artifacts do not become archive content merely because they exist on disk.
GDP can also flag sensitive-looking repository paths for review before export. That warning is path-based evidence and should prompt inspection; it is not a claim that GDP has semantically classified every file's secret content.
Review the export report before sharing an archive outside the machine.
Keep credentials, private keys, tokens, local-only environment files, and unrelated private material out of the transfer.
Ignore policy reduces accidental inclusion but is not a substitute for publication or recipient-specific privacy review.
A ZIP export is an artifact operation; it does not commit or push the repository.
Validate an archive before importing it
GDP inspects an archive before repository import and rejects unsafe entry structure instead of extracting blindly. Importable paths must remain repository-relative and must not escape through absolute paths or traversal. Archive validation also guards unsafe link-like entries, Git-internal destinations, duplicate or colliding entries, and configured archive size or entry limits.
The preview lists bounded visible entries. When a large valid archive is summarized with a checked +N row, that row represents the hidden remainder as a selected group; keeping it checked causes those validated hidden importable paths to participate in the selected import.
Do not manually reconstruct an unsafe archive path to get around GDP validation. A rejected archive should be rebuilt from a safe source.
Import only the entries you intend to write
ZIP Apply uses the selected validated entry set. Existing selected target files can be overwritten and missing selected targets can be created. The import is not a repository mirror: files that are absent from the archive are not deleted merely to make the repository match the ZIP.
ZIP imports use their own local review path and are intentionally outside patch Apply All. Treat the archive preview, selected entry set, and resulting Git state as separate evidence.
Uncheck an entry when it should not be imported.
If the +N hidden group is checked, hidden validated entries remain selected as a group.
A successful import can add or overwrite selected files but does not imply a commit, push, or deployment.
Refresh Git status and diff after import to verify the material repository effect.
Use rollback protection around ZIP writes
Before a protected ZIP import, GDP attempts an affected-path rollback snapshot for the selected target set. Existing target files are captured, while targets that did not exist before the import are recorded as absent so rollback can remove files created by the import.
If GDP cannot prove that the targeted archive snapshot is safe, it falls back to a full working-tree rollback snapshot rather than proceeding without recovery protection. If rollback preparation itself fails, the protected import should not start.
ZIP rollback restores the protected pre-import state; it is different from deleting the archive, Git Discard, or treating the ZIP as a reversible commit.
