Git ignore
Pain point
Development creates caches, generated output, local overrides, and secret-bearing environment files. Without a shared exclusion policy, those machine-local artifacts can enter commits and distract from project content.
.gitignore defines untracked paths that Git should normally leave out of commits. It protects the repository from machine-local state, generated output, caches, and secret-bearing local files.
Current rules
| Pattern | Reason |
|---|---|
.env and .env.* |
Keep local environment values and secrets untracked |
!.env.example |
Allow a value-free environment-variable template |
mise.local.toml and mise.*.local.toml |
Keep contributor-specific Mise overrides local |
.cache/ |
Ignore general local tool caches |
.rumdl_cache/ |
Ignore the rumdl incremental cache |
site/ |
Ignore the generated Zensical site |
Important boundary
Ignore rules affect untracked files. Adding a tracked path to .gitignore does not remove it from Git history or the index. If a path was committed accidentally, investigate its contents first, especially for secrets, before changing tracking state.
Check which rule ignores a path with:
git check-ignore -v -- .env
Extending it
This template keeps only language-agnostic rules. When a project selects Python, Node.js, Rust, or another ecosystem, add the appropriate official patterns without duplicating existing entries. The GitHub gitignore templates are the preferred starting point.
See the official gitignore documentation for pattern precedence, negation, directory matching, and scope.