Does Claude Code honor .claudeignore?

Not by itself. Claude Code enforces permission rules, so copy the sensitive paths into permissions.deny in .claude/settings.json, for example Read(./.env). Keep .claudeignore in the repository root as the reviewable list.

What should I put in .claudeignore?

Exclude large build caches, minified bundles, lockfiles, and environment files containing sensitive credentials.

Target Standard & File Format

Select runtime specification

AI Agent Rules & Skills

Context Shields & Privacy (Ignore Files)

Integrations & Machine Documentation

AI Governance & Multi-Agent Planning Suite

.claudeignore Shield

Define boundary exclusions for Claude Code CLI to guard credentials and reduce prompt bloat:

Shield Protection ProfileFull Protection

Tokens Saved / Turn

~190k tokens

Secret Leak Guards

2 Active Guards

Shield Categories

8 of 8 Enabled

Indexing Boundary Categories

Select active exclusions

Toggle specific categories to mask secrets and exclude heavy artifacts:

Secrets & Local Credentials~5k tokens

Masks .env files, private keys, SSL certs, service accounts, and API credentials from AI indexers.

Dependency Bloat & Lockfiles~60k tokens

Excludes node_modules, vendor directories, and massive lockfiles (package-lock, yarn, pnpm, Cargo).

Build Outputs & Framework Caches~35k tokens

Filters out dist/, build/, out/, .next/, .turbo/, .cache/, and compiled bytecode artifacts.

Media & Heavy Binary Blobs~20k tokens

Omits raster images (png, jpg, webp), audio/video, fonts, zip archives, and wasm binaries.

Logs & Diagnostic Traces~15k tokens

Blocks test coverage reports (coverage/, .nyc_output/) and verbose npm/yarn/pnpm debug logs.

IDE Configurations & OS Metadata~5k tokens

Strips .idea/, .vscode/, editor swap files, .DS_Store, and Windows Thumbs.db files.

Database Dumps & Local Storage~30k tokens

Guards raw database dumps (*.sql, *.dump), SQLite database files, and journal files (*.db, *.db-wal).

Test Fixtures & Heavy Snapshots~20k tokens

Skips bloated mock JSON payloads, large test fixture folders, and verbose test snapshots.

Custom Rules & Negate Exceptions

Append repo-specific file globs or re-include allowed files with negation patterns (!path):

.claudeignore94 lines

# .claudeignore - Claude Code CLI Privacy & Boundary Protection
# Prevents Claude Code CLI from indexing and modifying sensitive credentials, build caches, and bulky lockfiles.
# Keeping your agent boundary clean improves reasoning quality and prevents data leaks.

# --- Critical: Secrets & Local Credentials ---
.env
.env.*
!.env.example
*.pem
*.key
*.cert
*.crt
id_rsa*
secrets/
credentials/
service-account*.json
*.p12
*.pfx
*.keystore

# --- Dependency Bloat & Massive Lockfiles (Saves 50k+ tokens) ---
node_modules/
vendor/
package-lock.json
pnpm-lock.yaml
yarn.lock
bun.lockb
poetry.lock
Pipfile.lock
Cargo.lock
composer.lock
go.sum

# --- Build Artifacts, Bundler & Framework Caches ---
dist/
build/
out/
.cache/
*.tsbuildinfo

# --- Large Binary Files & Media (Never needed by LLM) ---
*.png
*.jpg
*.jpeg
*.gif
*.ico
*.webp
*.mp4
*.webm
*.mp3
*.wav
*.zip
*.tar.gz
*.tgz
*.rar
*.7z
*.pdf
*.wasm

# --- Test Coverage & Debug Logs ---
coverage/
.nyc_output/
*.lcov
*.log
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
pnpm-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*

# --- Editor Metadata & OS Caches ---
.idea/
.vscode/
*.swp
*.swo
*~
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# --- Database Dumps & Local SQLite Storage ---
*.sql
*.dump
*.sqlite
*.sqlite3
*.db
*.db-shm
*.db-wal

# --- Heavy Test Fixtures & Snapshots ---
test/fixtures/large/
tests/fixtures/
__snapshots__/
fixtures/**/*.json
mock-data/**/*.json

Click or focus to edit

IGNORE•UTF-8•94 Lines•Spaces: 2

Target File Location

Project Placement

Save as .claudeignore in project root as the readable list. Claude Code does not read this file; the .claude/settings.json below enforces the secrets list.

Generated with this file

.claude/settings.json
Claude Code permissions: blocks reads of secret files and asks before git push. Claude Code does not read .claudeignore.

What's in the ZIP export (20 files)

Unzip into your project root. Every file is already in the folder its tool reads from.

Include extras: Claude Code subagent, Gemini CLI, Aider, Copilot and Kiro scoped rules, CI audit workflow

.claude/settings.json
.claude/skills/terraform-iac/SKILL.md
.claude/skills/terraform-iac/scripts/verify.sh
.claudeignore (open in editor)
.cursor/rules/terraform-iac.mdc
.cursorignore
.github/copilot-instructions.md
.mcp.json
.windsurf/rules/terraform-iac.md
AGENTS.md
ARCHITECTURE.md
CLAUDE.md
DESIGN.md
MEMORY.md
PRD.md
README.md
TASK.md
llms.txt
prompts/gemini-system-instructions.json
prompts/openai-custom-instructions.md

DevOps & Tooling · Claude Code (via permissions.deny)

Terraform & OpenTofu IaC .claudeignore

A .claudeignore for Terraform & OpenTofu IaC: the paths Claude Code should stay out of, with matching permissions.deny rules.

Path: .claudeignore
Loads: Pattern list
Format: gitignore syntax
Used by: Claude Code (via permissions.deny)

All .claudeignore presets and how .claudeignore works

What this file tells the agent

Claude Code reads files while it works. This .claudeignore keeps the list of Terraform & OpenTofu IaC paths it should stay out of (build output, large binaries, logs and secrets). Copy the sensitive ones into permissions.deny in .claude/settings.json, which Claude Code enforces.

Pin explicit version constraints for all providers and required Terraform/OpenTofu core versions (required_providers).
Store state securely in remote backends (S3 with DynamoDB state locking or GCS/Terraform Cloud); ban local terraform.tfstate.
Enforce mandatory resource tagging (Environment, Project, Owner, ManagedBy) on all provisioned cloud assets.
Never hardcode secrets, API keys, or master database passwords; inject via secure variables with sensitive = true or secret managers.
Declare explicit lifecycle { prevent_destroy = true } blocks on critical production databases and storage buckets.

Code to avoid, and what to write instead

The rule steers the agent away from the left and toward the right.

avoid

# Dangerous: Hardcoded secret, no version lock, unmanaged state
resource "aws_db_instance" "bad_db" {
  engine   = "postgres"
  password = "plaintextpassword123" # Leaked credentials in git!
}

write instead

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.7.0"
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.40"
    }
  }
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "corp-tf-state-prod"
    key            = "vpc/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "us-east-1"
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-locks"
    encrypt        = true
  }
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "primary" {
  identifier          = "app-db-prod"
  allocated_storage   = 50
  engine              = "postgres"
  instance_class      = "db.r6g.large"
  password            = var.db_password
  skip_final_snapshot = false
  
  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }
}

Install it in one command

01
Go to your project root
The file goes at .claudeignore, relative to the root.
02
Download the file
Run the command on the right. It downloads this preset and writes the file.
03
Make sure it gets used
Claude Code does not enforce .claudeignore by itself. Copy the sensitive paths into permissions.deny in .claude/settings.json, which it does enforce.

$ curl -fsSL "https://www.devscratchpad.tech/api/raw/claudeignore/terraform-iac" -o ".claudeignore"

writes .claudeignore

path

.claudeignore

To write the file from your own code instead, use Read your code or Convert Legacy Rules in the editor above.

More for Terraform & OpenTofu IaC

Other formats

Other .claudeignore presets

Questions

Does Claude Code honor .claudeignore?: Not by itself. Claude Code enforces permission rules, so copy the sensitive paths into permissions.deny in .claude/settings.json, for example Read(./.env). Keep .claudeignore in the repository root as the reviewable list.
What should I put in .claudeignore?: Exclude large build caches, minified bundles, lockfiles, and environment files containing sensitive credentials.