Why a smart .gitignore matters
A bloated or incomplete .gitignore leaks secrets, slows clones, and pollutes diffs. This generator merges only the patterns your stack actually needs — deduped, commented, and ordered by priority.
Already tracked files?
Adding a pattern won't untrack files git already knows about. Run git rm -r --cached . then commit to force git to re-read the ignore file.
Global vs project .gitignore
OS/IDE patterns (e.g. .DS_Store) are better placed in your global ignore: git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global
Monorepos
Place a root-level .gitignore for shared patterns, and per-package .gitignore files for package-specific build artefacts. Git merges them automatically.
Never commit these
.env files, private keys, node_modules/, build output, dependency caches, and editor local settings — this generator covers all of them.