.gitignore Generator: Build a .gitignore for Any Stack
Generate a clean .gitignore file for any combination of languages, frameworks, editors, and operating systems. Search, select, and download in seconds.
How this .gitignore generator merges curated templates into one file
A .gitignore file is only useful if it covers every layer of your actual project: the language runtime, the framework, the editor, and the operating system you're developing on. This tool keeps a set of curated pattern blocks for each of those layers separately, as plain multi line strings, and lets you pick as many as apply, then concatenates the chosen blocks into one file with clear comment headers marking where each section starts.
The template text lives directly in the page's JavaScript as a static object. There's no lookup against GitHub's own gitignore template repository or any other network source; everything the generator can produce is already in the script that ships with the page, and the merge itself runs instantly in the browser.
Twenty-nine curated templates across four categories
Rather than one generic template per ecosystem, the pattern set is split so you compose exactly the layers your project needs.
| Category | Included templates |
|---|---|
| Languages | Node, Python, Java, Go, Rust, Ruby, PHP, C++, C#, Swift, Kotlin, Dart/Flutter |
| Frameworks | React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, Django, Flask, Ruby on Rails, Laravel |
| Editors and OS | VS Code, IntelliJ, Sublime Text, macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Infrastructure | Docker, Terraform, and a general Env / Secrets block |
How the merge actually works
# comment header (like # Node), so blocks are joined with a double newline between them, keeping every section visually distinct in the final file.
dist/ and build/ appear in both blocks. With Remove duplicate rules ticked, only the first copy stays. A rule after a ! negation is always kept, because Git reads the file top to bottom and order matters there. Untick the option to keep every block exactly as written.Live search filter
Typing in the search box filters the chips by name and common aliases, so vscode, jetbrains, golang or dotnet all find the right template. Press Enter to select the first match.
Sensible starting defaults
Node, macOS, and VS Code are pre-selected on load, reflecting the most common baseline for a JavaScript project developed on a Mac in VS Code, and a first file generates automatically without needing a click.
Templates and Git documentation
- git-scm.com: gitignore is the official Git documentation for pattern syntax, negation with
!, and precedence rules. - github/gitignore is GitHub's own community-maintained template repository, the closest thing to a canonical source for per-language ignore patterns.
- GitHub Docs: Ignoring files explains how .gitignore interacts with already-tracked files, a common point of confusion.
What people ignore, and why
Setting up a new repository's ignore rules in seconds instead of copying boilerplate from memory, adding a missing OS or editor layer to an existing .gitignore that only covers the language, standardizing ignore file contents across a team's projects that mix Node, Python, and Docker, and quickly checking exactly which patterns a given framework template recommends before deciding whether to adopt them as is.
Frequently Asked Questions
A .gitignore file is a plain text file placed in a Git repository that tells Git which files and directories to exclude from version control, one pattern per line. This typically includes build artifacts, dependency directories like node_modules, compiled binaries, log files, environment variable files containing secrets, and editor or operating system generated files like .DS_Store, none of which belong in your shared source history.
Dependency folders and build output are either regenerated automatically from your source code and lock files, or are extremely large and change on every install, committing them bloats your repository size, causes unnecessary merge conflicts, and can even introduce platform-specific binaries that break for other contributors. The standard practice is to commit your source code and lock files (like package-lock.json), then let each environment regenerate its own dependencies and build output locally.
Adding a .gitignore file only affects files that are not yet tracked by Git, any file already committed to your repository's history will continue to be tracked even if it now matches a .gitignore pattern. To stop tracking a file you've already committed, remove it from Git's index with git rm --cached <file> (this removes it from version control but keeps it on your local disk), then commit that change alongside your new .gitignore.
Yes, that's exactly what this tool is built for, select every template relevant to your project (for example, Node, React, and your editor and OS) and they'll be merged into a single .gitignore with clear section comments marking where each template's patterns begin. There's no real limit to how many templates you can combine.
Generally yes, treat the generated file as a strong, standard starting point rather than a final answer, most projects will want to add a few project-specific entries (custom output directories, local configuration files, generated documentation) that no generic template can anticipate. It's good practice to review the file once before committing it.
No, a single .gitignore at the root of your repository is sufficient for most projects, since Git applies its patterns recursively to all subdirectories unless a pattern is anchored with a leading slash. Some larger monorepos do use additional .gitignore files in specific subfolders for folder-specific exceptions, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
No, this tool only assembles static template text you select, it has no access to your actual project files, folder structure, or repository, and everything happens locally in your browser. Generating a .gitignore here is completely independent of and disconnected from your actual codebase until you manually copy or download the result into it.
From the blog
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Minification, UUID collisions, diffing API responses, and the other questions that come up around this toolset.
