Ignore Files

Use .protoignore to exclude files and directories from proto's file tools.

How it works

Create a .protoignore file in your project root. Files matching the rules are excluded from tools that support it (e.g. read_many_files, glob searches). They remain visible to git and other tools.

Changes take effect on the next session start.

Syntax

.protoignore follows .gitignore conventions:

• Blank lines and # comments are ignored
• Standard glob patterns (*, ?, [])
• Trailing / matches directories only
• Leading / anchors the pattern to the file's location
• ! negates a pattern

Examples

# Exclude a directory
/archive/

# Exclude a specific file
apikeys.txt

# Exclude all markdown files
*.md

# Exclude all markdown except README.md
*.md
!README.md

# Exclude node_modules everywhere
node_modules/

# Exclude build artifacts
/dist/
/build/
*.min.js

Common use cases

• Exclude node_modules/, dist/, and other generated directories to keep proto focused on source files
• Exclude large binary or data files that aren't useful in context
• Exclude files with sensitive content (secrets files, local config overrides)