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Ignore Patterns

ReadmeAI automatically excludes certain files and directories from analysis to focus on relevant code and documentation. This system works on two levels: built-in defaults and user-customizable patterns.

How File Filtering Works

ReadmeAI uses a two-tier filtering system:

  1. Default Filters: Built-in patterns that exclude common non-essential files
  2. Custom Patterns: User-defined patterns in .readmeaiignore files

Default Exclusions

ReadmeAI automatically ignores:

  • Development artifacts: __pycache__/, .pytest_cache/, node_modules/
  • Build outputs: dist/, build/, .tox/
  • Version control: .git/, .svn/, .hg/
  • IDE files: .vscode/, .idea/
  • Binary files: *.exe, *.dll, *.so, *.dylib
  • Media files: *.jpg, *.png, *.mp4, *.gif
  • Archive files: *.zip, *.tar, *.gz

Custom Ignore Patterns

You can override or extend the default behavior by creating a .readmeaiignore file in your repository root. This file follows gitignore-style syntax:

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# Comments start with #
# Ignore specific files
config/secrets.yaml
.env.local

# Ignore by extension
*.cache
*.tmp

# Ignore directories (trailing slash)
logs/
temp/

# Global patterns (recursive)
**/node_modules/
**/*.log

# Negation patterns (include despite other rules)
!important.log
!docs/examples/

Pattern Syntax

ReadmeAI supports gitignore-style patterns:

Pattern Description Example
filename.ext Exact filename match config.yaml
*.ext All files with extension *.log
directory/ Directory and contents temp/
**/pattern Recursive match **/cache/
pattern/** All files under directory logs/**
!pattern Negation (include) !important.log
/pattern Root-level only /config.yaml

Precedence Rules

When multiple patterns could apply to a file:

  1. Custom patterns take precedence over default patterns
  2. Negation patterns (!pattern) override exclusion patterns
  3. More specific patterns override general patterns
  4. Later patterns in the file override earlier ones

Why This Approach?

This filtering system serves several purposes:

  • Performance: Analyzing fewer files means faster README generation
  • Relevance: Focus on source code and documentation, not artifacts
  • Security: Avoid accidentally including sensitive files in analysis
  • Customization: Project-specific needs through .readmeaiignore