Asset duplication on GitBook merge (GitLab sync)

[lucacavazzana]

Summary

Every time I merge an edit through GitBook, random assets get duplicated in the synced GitLab repository — often assets that are completely unrelated to the page I edited. References to the original files are also silently updated to point to the new duplicates.

Steps to reproduce

• Edit any page in GitBook.
• Merge the change.
• Inspect the resulting commit in the synced GitLab repository.

Expected behavior

Only files related to the edited page are modified. No unrelated assets are touched.

Actual behavior

The commit includes a newly created duplicate of an unrelated asset (e.g., example (1).png, a binary copy of example.png), and all references to the original in Markdown files are updated to point to the duplicate. The GitBook change history shows no trace of these modifications — only the intentional edits are displayed.

Impact

These rogue changes compound over time, causing uncontrolled proliferation of files in the .gitbook/assets/ directory:
example (1).png, example (1) (1).png, example (1) (1) (1).png, ...

Evidence

The following git show output illustrates the issue (filenames redacted). A new image was created, and references were updated, despite no edit being made to the affected page or image:

...
diff --git a/.gitbook/assets/REDACTED (1).png b/.gitbook/assets/REDACTED (1).png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f144a62
Binary files /dev/null and b/.gitbook/assets/REDACTED (1).png differ
diff --git a/integrating/REDACTED.md b/integrating/REDACTED.md
index 49f0532..45719e5 100644
--- a/integrating/REDACTED.md
+++ b/integrating/REDACTED.md
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@
-<figure><img src="../../.gitbook/assets/REDACTED.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="../../.gitbook/assets/REDACTED (1).png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
 
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ 
-<figure><img src="../../.gitbook/assets/REDACTED.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="../../.gitbook/assets/REDACTED (1).png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
...

Additional context

This has been occurring consistently for the past couple of years across multiple merges.

[aikoii]

👋 @lucacavazzana - we'll look into it, thanks!

[aikoii]

Hey! This should be resolved 🤞 Let me know if anything looks off