Git: Ignore & Stop Tracking

Adds an Ignore & Untrack action to the Source Control context menu that, in one step:

1. Removes the selected file(s) from the git index (git rm --cached), keeping them on disk, and
2. Adds an anchored entry to your .gitignore.

This is the fix for the common "I committed a file I shouldn't have" situation — .env, node_modules/, build output, local config — where adding it to .gitignore alone isn't enough because git is already tracking it.

Usage

1. Open the Source Control view.
2. Right-click one or more files under Changes (or any tracked file shown there).
3. Choose Ignore & Untrack.

The file stops being tracked and an anchored entry is appended to .gitignore. Commit to finalize.

Examples

Example 1 — a single committed secret

You accidentally committed secrets.txt. Right-click it under Changes → Ignore & Untrack.

.gitignore gains an anchored entry:

/secrets.txt

git status now shows the file as a staged deletion — it's removed from the index but still on disk, and it won't come back as an untracked file because it's ignored:

Changes to be committed:
  deleted:    secrets.txt

A notification confirms:

Stopped tracking 1 file(s), added 1 to .gitignore. Commit to finalize.

Commit, and the secret is gone from version control while your local copy stays put.

Example 2 — a whole build folder

Select a directory such as dist/ and run the action. A single anchored entry is written:

/dist

…and everything currently tracked under dist/ is removed from the index recursively (git rm --cached -r). One entry covers the whole folder.

Example 3 — multiple files, even across repos

Select several files at once (Ctrl/Cmd-click). They're grouped by repository, and each repo's .gitignore is updated independently — so a multi-root workspace spanning two repositories is handled correctly in a single action:

# repo A/.gitignore
/.env
/config.local.json

# repo B/.gitignore
/build

Features

• One step, no terminal — no need to remember git rm --cached followed by editing .gitignore.
• Multi-select aware — select several files at once.
• Multi-repo aware — selections spanning more than one repository are grouped and handled per repo.
• Anchored entries — writes /relative/path so it ignores exactly that path from the repo root, not every file with the same name.
• Idempotent — won't add duplicate .gitignore lines, and stays quiet for files that weren't tracked yet.

Requirements

• The built-in Git extension (vscode.git) must be enabled.
• git available on your PATH.

How it works

For each selected file the extension runs git rm --cached -r --ignore-unmatch to drop it from the index without deleting it, then appends an anchored entry (e.g. /src/secret.txt) to the repository's .gitignore, creating the file if needed. Changes are staged but not committed — review and commit when you're ready.

FAQ & Troubleshooting

It still shows up in git status after I run it. That's expected — the file is staged as a deletion (removed from the index). Commit to finalize.

Does this delete my file? No. git rm --cached removes the file from git's index only; your copy on disk is untouched.

The file is already in .gitignore but git keeps tracking it. That's exactly what this extension fixes. Run Ignore & Untrack on it — the file is untracked, and the duplicate .gitignore line is skipped automatically.

The "Ignore & Untrack" item isn't in my menu. Make sure the built-in Git extension is enabled and the file appears under Source Control. The action is contributed to the Source Control context menu and only shows for git repositories.

License

0BSD