Gitignore Hider

Toggle hiding of .gitignore entries in the VS Code Explorer with a single click.

No more scrolling past node_modules, .turbo, dist, build to get to the files you actually work on — and still one click away when you need them.

Features

• One-click toggle from the status bar (👁 / 👁‍🗨)
• Reads your workspace .gitignore and hides matching folders/files
• Non-destructive — remembers exactly which entries it added and restores your original files.exclude when toggled off
• Auto-refresh — if you edit .gitignore while hiding is active, the excludes update automatically
• Optional auto-hide on startup per workspace
• Support for extra patterns beyond what's in .gitignore

Usage

After installing, open any workspace that has a .gitignore file.

• Click the eye icon in the status bar (bottom right) to toggle
• Or open the Command Palette and run:
  • Gitignore Hider: Hide .gitignore Entries
  • Gitignore Hider: Show .gitignore Entries
  • Gitignore Hider: Toggle
  • Gitignore Hider: Refresh from .gitignore

The status bar icon reflects the current state:

Settings

{
  // Automatically hide on workspace open
  "gitignoreHider.autoHideOnStartup": false,

  // Extra glob patterns to hide alongside .gitignore
  "gitignoreHider.additionalPatterns": [
    "**/.DS_Store",
    "**/*.log"
  ]
}

How patterns are translated

.gitignore syntax is converted to VS Code's files.exclude glob format:

Comments (#), empty lines, and negation patterns (!) are skipped.

Why non-destructive matters

The extension writes its additions into files.exclude at workspace scope and tracks them in the workspace state. When you toggle off, it removes only what it added — any manual entries you had in files.exclude stay intact.

Development

bun install
bun run compile
# Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host

To build a local .vsix:

bunx @vscode/vsce package
code --install-extension vscode-gitignore-hider-*.vsix

License

MIT — see LICENSE.