Skip to content

Remove gitignore fallback from gooseignore docs #6480

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
emma-squared merged 1 commit into from
Jan 13, 2026
Merged

Remove gitignore fallback from gooseignore docs #6480

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
22 changes: 4 additions & 18 deletions documentation/docs/guides/using-gooseignore.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ downloads/ # Ignore everything in the "downloads" directory
```

## Ignore File Types and Priority
goose respects ignore rules from three sources: global `.gooseignore`, local `.gooseignore`, and `.gitignore`. It uses a priority system to determine which files should be ignored.
goose respects ignore rules from global `.gooseignore` and local `.gooseignore` files. It uses a priority system to determine which files should be ignored.

### 1. Global `.gooseignore`
- Highest priority and always applied first
Expand All @@ -63,31 +63,18 @@ goose respects ignore rules from three sources: global `.gooseignore`, local `.g
### 2. Local `.gooseignore`
- Project-specific rules
- Located in your project root directory
- Overrides `.gitignore` completely

```
~/.config/goose/
└── .gooseignore ← Global rules applied first

Project/
├── .gooseignore ← Local rules applied second
├── .gitignore ← Ignored when .gooseignore exists
└── src/
```

### 3. `.gitignore` Fallback
- Used when no local `.gooseignore` exists
- goose automatically uses your `.gitignore` rules
- If a global `.gooseignore` file exists, those rules will be applied in addition to the `.gitignore` patterns.

```
Project/
├── .gitignore ← Used by goose (when no local .gooseignore)
└── src/
```

### 4. Default Patterns
By default, if you haven't created any .gooseignore files and no .gitignore file exists, goose will not modify files matching these patterns:
### 3. Default Patterns
By default, if you haven't created any .gooseignore files, goose will not modify files matching these patterns:
```plaintext
**/.env
**/.env.*
Expand All @@ -102,5 +89,4 @@ Here are some typical scenarios where `.gooseignore` is helpful:
- **Third-Party Code**: Keep goose from changing external libraries or dependencies
- **Important Configurations**: Protect critical configuration files from accidental modifications
- **Version Control**: Prevent changes to version control files like `.git` directory
- **Existing Projects**: Most projects already have `.gitignore` files that work automatically as ignore patterns for goose
- **Custom Restrictions**: Create `.gooseignore` when you need different patterns than your `.gitignore` (e.g., allowing goose to read files that Git ignores)
- **Custom Restrictions**: Create `.gooseignore` files to define which files goose should not access
Loading