Gitignore Generator
Write a .gitignore for the folder you have open, picked from eleven templates
that ship inside the extension. Nothing is downloaded — no gitignore.io, no
github/gitignore checkout, no cache to warm or invalidate — so the command
works the same offline as online.
Features
Eleven bundled templates, multi-select. The picker lists Default, Node,
Python, Rust, Go, Java, macOS, Windows, Linux, VS Code and JetBrains, in that
order, each with a one-line description (Node.js, npm, pnpm, yarn; Cargo build artifacts; IntelliJ / PyCharm / WebStorm; …). Filtering matches the
descriptions as well as the names, so typing gradle finds Java and venv
finds Python. Tick as many as you want; Default starts ticked.
The Default template is a single pragmatic mix rather than one ecosystem:
.DS_Store, Rust target, node_modules and the usual JS build and cache
directories, debug logs, .env files (with !.env.example kept), *.local,
*.zip, temp, .claude, .vscode, .sqlx-cache, *.db and
__pycache__. It is the right pick for a small polyglot repo; the
per-language templates are fuller and stricter.
Labelled sections. Every template is written under a
### Gitignore Generator: <name> header, with a blank line between sections,
so you can tell later which block came from where and delete one cleanly.
Append or overwrite, your choice. If a .gitignore already exists,
Generate .gitignore stops and asks in a modal dialog: Overwrite replaces
the file with just the sections you picked, Append keeps what is there and
adds to it, and dismissing the dialog does nothing at all. When appending,
trailing blank lines on the existing file are collapsed to exactly one blank
line before the new sections.
Multi-root aware. With several folders in the workspace you are asked
which one the .gitignore belongs in. With one folder it is used without a
prompt. With no folder open you get an error telling you to open one.
The file opens afterwards, in an editor tab, so you can see what was
written and edit it before committing.
Usage
- Run Gitignore: Generate .gitignore from the Command Palette.
- If the workspace has more than one folder, choose the target folder.
- Tick the templates you want and confirm. Default is pre-ticked; untick it if
you would rather assemble from the per-language templates.
- If the folder already has a
.gitignore, choose Overwrite or Append in the
dialog.
- The
.gitignore opens in an editor. Review it and commit.
To skip the overwrite question entirely and always add to the end of the file,
use Gitignore: Append Templates to .gitignore instead. It creates the file
if it does not exist yet, and never removes anything.
Note that appending does not deduplicate: running it twice with the same
template gives you two copies of that section. Git does not mind repeated
patterns, but you may want to tidy up.
Commands
- Gitignore: Generate .gitignore (
gitignore-generator.generate) — pick
templates and write .gitignore, asking what to do if one already exists.
- Gitignore: Append Templates to .gitignore (
gitignore-generator.append) —
pick templates and append them to .gitignore, creating it if needed.
Settings
This extension contributes no settings.
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