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Build a clean .gitignore for any stack — languages, frameworks, IDEs, and OS.
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# Node.js
node_modules/
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*
pnpm-debug.log*
.pnpm-store/
.npm
.yarn-integrity
# Coverage
coverage/
*.lcov
.nyc_output
# Build output
dist/
build/
# Environment
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local
# macOS
.DS_Store
.AppleDouble
.LSOverride
Icon
._*
.DocumentRevisions-V100
.fseventsd
.Spotlight-V100
.TemporaryItems
.Trashes
.VolumeIcon.icns
.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
Every Git repository needs a .gitignore file. It is the plain-text list of paths Git should *not* track — build artifacts, dependency folders, IDE config, OS junk like .DS_Store. Without it, your first commit accidentally drags in node_modules/, .env, and target/, and undoing that mess is far more annoying than getting the file right up front.
Each ecosystem ignores different things, and most projects span several at once. A typical Node + TypeScript app on a macOS laptop with VS Code already needs the union of four different ignore lists. Writing this by hand from memory means you forget coverage/, leak a .env, or commit a stray .idea/ from a teammate's JetBrains setup.
So this generator bundles curated templates from the canonical github/gitignore project — the same rules behind the official GitHub auto-suggestions — and lets you stack them together. Check the boxes that apply, and you get one deduplicated .gitignore to paste straight into your repo. No accounts, no uploads, runs entirely in your browser.
.gitignore patterns use glob syntax: *.log ignores every log file, build/ ignores a folder, !important.log un-ignores a specific file even if a glob matches it..gitignore file — so a .gitignore inside src/ only affects files under src/.node_modules/ and then add it to .gitignore, you still need to git rm -r --cached node_modules to untrack it.If your project matches a common combination — Next.js, Django, Rails — click a preset to tick all the relevant boxes at once. Then prune or add a couple more if you have extras.
Every language has artifacts to ignore: Node has node_modules/, Python has __pycache__/ and virtualenvs, Java has target/ and .class files. Pick the languages your project actually compiles.
On top of the language rules, frameworks add their own build directories: Next.js wants .next/ and .vercel, Django wants staticfiles/ and db.sqlite3, Rails wants tmp/ and /storage/*. Tick the framework if you use it.
Add the editor templates the **team** uses (not just you) — if anyone uses JetBrains or Vim, include them. Then add the operating systems on your team: macOS dumps .DS_Store, Windows dumps Thumbs.db, both are easy to commit by accident.
The right panel shows the combined, deduplicated output. Hit **Copy** to paste it straight into a .gitignore at your repo root, or **Download** to save the file directly.
The patterns you'll write most often. Full reference at git-scm.com/docs/gitignore.
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
node_modules | Ignore a file or folder with this exact name, anywhere in the tree | Matches both /node_modules and src/node_modules |
node_modules/ | Trailing slash — match a **folder** only, not a same-named file | Won't match a file accidentally named node_modules |
/build | Leading slash — anchor to the .gitignore directory only | Matches /build but not src/build |
*.log | Glob — match any file ending in .log | Matches error.log, debug.log, logs/foo.log |
!important.log | Negation — un-ignore a specific file matched by an earlier rule | Pair with *.log to keep one log file tracked |
docs/**/draft | Double-star — match draft in any subfolder of docs/ | Matches docs/v1/draft and docs/2025/q1/draft |
# comment | Comment — lines starting with # are ignored by Git | Group rules with section headers like # Node.js |
# Node.js node_modules/ npm-debug.log* dist/ .env .env.local # macOS .DS_Store ._*
The bare minimum for any Node project shared with a teammate on macOS. Even a tiny side project should have these rules — without .DS_Store and node_modules/ you'll fight pointless conflicts.
# Python __pycache__/ *.py[cod] .venv .pytest_cache/ # Django *.log local_settings.py db.sqlite3 media/ staticfiles/ # JetBrains .idea/ *.iml
A typical Django backend developed in PyCharm. Note the local db.sqlite3 is ignored — production never uses it, and committing it leaks dev data and breaks teammates' fresh clones.
*.log !keep-me.log
The first line ignores every .log file. The !keep-me.log rule then re-includes that one specific file. Negations only work for files an earlier rule actually ignored — you can't un-ignore a file inside an ignored folder.
.gitignore after the fact and expecting committed files to disappear. They don't — you have to git rm -r --cached <path> to untrack them..env once. Even one commit leaks the secret forever in your repo history. Add .env* to .gitignore **before** the first commit, and rotate any secret that did slip in..DS_Store rule, those files will appear in every PR diff and slow down review..gitignore is meant to be version-controlled and shared with your team. It is the *contract* about what should and shouldn't be tracked. The exception is personal preferences (e.g. your editor of choice) — those belong in your global ~/.gitignore_global..gitignore first, then run git rm --cached <path> (or git rm -r --cached <folder>) to remove it from the index without deleting it on disk. Commit both changes together so teammates see the update..gitignore in each directory and applies the rules to that subtree. This is useful for monorepos where the frontend and backend have very different ignore rules — keep root-level rules for shared OS/editor noise and put language rules in each package's directory..gitignore is committed and shared with the team. .git/info/exclude lives only in your local clone and is for personal exclusions you don't want to push. For exclusions across all of your repos, use a global ~/.gitignore_global instead.