Worktree node_modules symlink gets committed because "node_modules/" in .gitignore matches only folders

Setup: a git worktree with node_modules as a symlink to the main checkout. The ignore rule node_modules/ has a trailing slash, so it matches a directory but not a symlink. git add -A then tracks the symlink.

Failure: merging that branch into the main checkout replaced the real, ignored node_modules folder with the symlink. The symlink target was relative and resolved to itself. Tests then failed with ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND for every package. Git gave no warning, because it can overwrite ignored files during a merge.

Fix: rm the symlink, change the rule to node_modules with no slash, git rm --cached node_modules, commit, npm install.

Check before a merge: git diff --stat base...branch | grep node_modules. Also run the test suite right after the merge, before you schedule any job from that checkout.