From 18efd0cf1beea5414f8e4811b055088dbb41c670 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nitish Kumar <justnitish06@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:04:34 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] fix: trim whitespaces when retrieving source refresh paths
 (#26400)

Signed-off-by: nitishfy <justnitish06@gmail.com>
---
 util/app/path/path.go      |  5 +++++
 util/app/path/path_test.go | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)

diff --git a/util/app/path/path.go b/util/app/path/path.go
index 88b409e36e..4ea95d7416 100644
--- a/util/app/path/path.go
+++ b/util/app/path/path.go
@@ -117,6 +117,11 @@ func GetSourceRefreshPaths(app *v1alpha1.Application, source v1alpha1.Applicatio
 	var paths []string
 	if hasAnnotation && annotationPaths != "" {
 		for item := range strings.SplitSeq(annotationPaths, ";") {
+			// Trim whitespace because annotation values may contain spaces around
+			// separators (e.g. ".; /path"). Without trimming, paths like " /path"
+			// are not treated as absolute and empty/space-only entries may result
+			// in duplicate or incorrect refresh paths.
+			item = strings.TrimSpace(item)
 			// skip empty paths
 			if item == "" {
 				continue
diff --git a/util/app/path/path_test.go b/util/app/path/path_test.go
index 07c043a586..06ce653ff8 100644
--- a/util/app/path/path_test.go
+++ b/util/app/path/path_test.go
@@ -192,6 +192,43 @@ func Test_GetAppRefreshPaths(t *testing.T) {
 			source:        v1alpha1.ApplicationSource{Path: "dry/path"},
 			expectedPaths: []string{"dry/path/deploy"},
 		},
+		{
+			name:   "annotation paths with spaces after semicolon",
+			app:    getApp(ptr.To(".; dev/deploy; other/path"), ptr.To("source/path")),
+			source: v1alpha1.ApplicationSource{Path: "source/path"},
+			expectedPaths: []string{
+				"source/path",
+				"source/path/dev/deploy",
+				"source/path/other/path",
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "annotation paths with spaces before semicolon",
+			app:    getApp(ptr.To(". ;dev/deploy ;other/path"), ptr.To("source/path")),
+			source: v1alpha1.ApplicationSource{Path: "source/path"},
+			expectedPaths: []string{
+				"source/path",
+				"source/path/dev/deploy",
+				"source/path/other/path",
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "annotation paths with spaces around absolute path",
+			app:    getApp(ptr.To(" /fullpath/deploy ; other/path "), ptr.To("source/path")),
+			source: v1alpha1.ApplicationSource{Path: "source/path"},
+			expectedPaths: []string{
+				"fullpath/deploy",
+				"source/path/other/path",
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "annotation paths only spaces and separators",
+			app:    getApp(ptr.To(" ; ; . ; "), ptr.To("source/path")),
+			source: v1alpha1.ApplicationSource{Path: "source/path"},
+			expectedPaths: []string{
+				"source/path",
+			},
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {