Pick the languages, frameworks, editors and operating systems your project uses — this free gitignore generator instantly builds a clean, combined .gitignore file from all 312 official GitHub templates. Copy or download in one click, or drop in an existing file to pre-select what already applies.
The fastest way to create a .gitignore file
Every Git repository accumulates files you never want to commit: compiled binaries, downloaded dependencies, editor scratch files, OS metadata, and — most dangerously — secrets like .env files. A well-built .gitignore keeps all of that out of version control automatically. This gitignore generator assembles one for you in seconds: select your languages and frameworks on the left, and a production-ready file appears on the right, ready to copy or download into your repo root.
The patterns come straight from github/gitignore, the public-domain collection GitHub itself offers when you create a new repository. Every single template in that repository — all 312 of them, across its root, Global/ and community/ folders — is vendored into this page, not a hand-picked subset. Your selections never leave the browser, there's no signup, and the popular set works instantly offline once loaded.
What is a .gitignore file and how does it work?
A .gitignore is a plain-text file placed in your repository. Each line is a pattern; any path matching a pattern is excluded from Git's tracking. Git evaluates these rules every time you run git status or git add, so ignored files simply never show up as changes. Key rules of the syntax:
node_modules/— a trailing slash matches a directory and everything inside it.*.log— an asterisk is a wildcard, so this ignores every.logfile in any folder./build— a leading slash anchors the pattern to the repo root only.!important.log— a leading!negates a previous rule, re-including a file you'd otherwise ignored.# comment— lines starting with#are comments and are ignored by Git.
Because the order of rules matters for negation, a good generator groups templates with clear headers and removes duplicate lines — exactly what this tool does.
Why combine multiple templates?
Real projects are rarely a single language. A typical full-stack app might use Node for tooling, Next.js for the frontend, Python for a data service, plus whatever editor and OS each teammate runs. If you only grab the Node template, you'll still accidentally commit __pycache__/, .idea/, or .DS_Store. Selecting every relevant template here merges them into one authoritative file so nothing slips through. The generator de-duplicates shared lines (like .env or dist/) so you don't get the same rule three times. Not every framework has its own upstream template — there's no separate "Django" or "React" file in github/gitignore — so the preset stacks above apply the real template that actually covers each (Python for Django, Node for React/Express) and say so.
Import an existing .gitignore
Already have a .gitignore from an older project? Drop the file onto the import box, or paste its contents, and this generator checks which of the 312 official templates your file's rules actually came from, pre-selects those, and shows a short diff of what the fresh, de-duplicated version adds on top of what you already had.
Common things you should always ignore
| Category | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dependencies | node_modules/, vendor/, .venv/ | Reproducible from a lockfile; bloats the repo. |
| Build output | dist/, build/, target/, *.class | Regenerated on every build. |
| Secrets | .env, *.key, credentials.json | Never commit credentials — a security risk. |
| Editor / IDE | .vscode/, .idea/, *.swp | Personal, machine-specific config. |
| OS junk | .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, Desktop.ini | Created automatically by the OS. |
| Logs / caches | *.log, .cache/, coverage/ | Noise that changes constantly. |
How to use the generated file
- Select your stack above (or use a preset) and click Download (or Copy).
- Save it as
.gitignorein the root of your repository — note the leading dot and no file extension. - Run
git add .gitignore && git commit -m "Add .gitignore". - If you've already committed files you now want ignored, untrack them with
git rm -r --cached node_modules(for example), then commit again. Adding a rule alone doesn't remove files Git is already tracking.
Tips for a clean repository
Keep secrets out of Git from day one — commit a .env.example with placeholder keys instead of the real .env. Add a .gitignore before your first commit so artifacts never enter history (rewriting history later is painful). For monorepos, layer a small .gitignore in each package on top of the root one. And if you ever need to force-add an ignored file, git add -f path/to/file overrides the rule for that single file.
Once your repo is tidy, explore the rest of this hub: the Dockerfile generator builds an optimized multi-stage container image for the same stack, and the .htaccess generator produces Apache rules for HTTPS, caching and redirects.