LFS Policy — Large-File Storage¶

Large binary artifacts must not be committed directly to Git. Use the guidelines below to handle any file that exceeds normal size limits or is unsuitable for text-based version control.

When to Use Git LFS¶

Enable Git LFS for a file when all of the following are true:

1. The file is binary (model weights, compressed archives, datasets, audio/video).
2. The file must be version-controlled alongside code.
3. The file exceeds 50 MB (hard limit) or 10 MB (soft recommendation).

Registering an LFS Track Pattern¶

git lfs track "*.safetensors"
git lfs track "data/*.parquet"
git add .gitattributes

Then commit the updated .gitattributes. All future files matching the pattern are stored in LFS.

Preferred Alternatives¶

Current Repository Baseline¶

• The repository does not force repo-wide Git LFS filters from .gitattributes; contributors opt in by adding explicit git lfs track patterns when needed.
• Copilot and Codespaces startup paths default to GIT_LFS_SKIP_SMUDGE=1 so ordinary sessions do not fetch large blobs during checkout.
• copilot-setup-steps.yml only re-enables LFS on workflow_dispatch runs when lfs_mode=targeted or lfs_mode=full is explicitly requested.

Guardrails¶

• The .dvcignore file excludes common large-file patterns from DVC tracking.
• Pre-commit hooks flag files >10 MB that are not tracked by LFS or DVC.
• Artifacts uploaded to GitHub Actions are subject to the 2 GB per-artifact limit under the GitHub Team plan.

Compliance Check¶

git lfs ls-files           # list LFS-tracked files
git lfs status             # show pending LFS transfers