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One Tip a Week: The Exclude Git Ignore VS Code Setting

One Tip a Week: The Exclude Git Ignore VS Code Setting

Nick Taylor
February 24, 2025

This week’s tip of the week is a is the Exclude Git Ignore user setting in VS Code. This is a great feature to declutter the tree explorer of VS Code with files your project ignores via its .gitignore file.

The setting can be enabled/disabled in your user settings for VS Code. You can open the settings via the command palette and searching for “settings”.

VS Code command palette open with Open User Settings options appearing in the list of commands

The user settings window opens. Search for gitignore and press the ENTER key or use the filter button. Ensure the Explorer: Exclude Git Ignore option is checked.

checking the Exclude Git Ignore setting in the VS Code user settings window

You can also change the settings in settings.json. Open the command palette again and search for settings. This time select “Settings (JSON)”.

In the settings.json file, add the following key/value pair:

"explorer.excludeGitIgnore": true

Like a lot of VS Code settings you can also apply these at the project/workspace level as well.

That’s it! Short and sweet. Until the next one!