Gitignore Generator

What it does

Pick your stack — Node, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Ruby, PHP, .NET, Swift, Kotlin, Dart/Flutter, Elixir, plus OS-level (macOS, Windows, Linux), editor-level (VS Code, IntelliJ, Sublime, Vim, Emacs), and framework- level templates (Next.js, Rails, Django, Laravel, Spring Boot, Unity) — and the tool assembles a clean, deduplicated .gitignore file ready to drop at the root of your repo.

Templates come from the canonical github/gitignore repository — the same lists GitHub itself offers in the "Add .gitignore" dropdown when you create a new repo. The improvement here is that you can pick MULTIPLE templates at once (e.g. Node + macOS + VS Code is the standard fullstack JS dev combo) and the tool merges them into a single ordered file with section headers, removing duplicate entries between templates so you don't end up with .DS_Store ignored 3 times.

Useful for spinning up new repos where you want comprehensive coverage from day one; retroactively fixing an old repo that's been accumulating committed build artifacts; cross-platform teams where Windows devs need Thumbs.db ignored and macOS devs need .DS_Store ignored. The output is just text — paste into .gitignore and commit.

How to use it

1. Click templates from the categories: Languages (Node, Python, Go, etc.), Operating Systems (macOS, Windows, Linux), Editors (VS Code, IntelliJ, Vim), Frameworks (Next.js, Rails, Unity).
2. The combined preview updates live with section headers and deduplicated entries.
3. Add custom rules at the top of the preview if you have project-specific paths to ignore (e.g. /tmp, /uploads, my_secret_config.json).
4. Click Copy or Download .gitignore to save the result.
5. Drop the file at the root of your repo, run `git rm -r --cached .` then `git add .` to force-clean any tracked files that should now be ignored.

When to use this tool

• Initializing a new repo and you want comprehensive coverage from day one.
• Joining a team where everyone uses different OSes and editors — the combined .gitignore covers all the cruft.
• Cleaning up an old repo that has committed build artifacts you want to start ignoring.
• Setting up CI environments where you need to know exactly what's tracked vs ignored.

When not to use it

• When you have one specific path to ignore — just add a one-liner manually instead of generating a 200-line file.
• .gitignore for monorepos with mixed stacks — you'll need separate .gitignore files per subdirectory; this generates one combined file.
• Excluding files from a specific commit only — that's git-update-index --skip-worktree, not .gitignore.

Common use cases

• Quick generation during a typical workday
• Pre-decision sanity-check on inputs and outputs
• Educational use — demonstrating the underlying concept
• Onboarding a colleague who needs the same calculation/conversion