Ignoring Files

Sometimes you want exceptions in your project structure.
Scaffoldrite uses .scaffoldignore to ignore files or folders, just like .gitignore.

1. What .scaffoldignore Does

• Prevents files/folders from being considered when:
  • sr init --from-fs (snapshots ignore them)
  • sr validate (ignored files won’t trigger validation errors)
  • sr list --fs (filesystem listing ignores them)
  • sr generate (ignored files/folders are skipped)

2. Example .scaffoldignore

# Ignore dependencies
node_modules/

# Ignore build output
dist/

# Ignore temporary or cache folders
.temp/
.cache/

# Ignore logs
*.log

# Ignore environment files
.env
.env.local

3. Rules for .scaffoldignore

• Use one entry per line.

• Support wildcards (*) and recursive patterns (**):

  • *.log → All .log files in current folder
  • logs/** → All files under logs/ folder recursively

• Lines starting with # are comments.

• Blank lines are ignored.

• Paths are relative to .scaffoldrite/ folder.

4. Usage in Workflow

During Init or Update

# Init structure from existing filesystem while ignoring certain folders
sr init --from-fs . 

.scaffoldignore ensures that ignored files are not included in the generated structure.sr.

During Validation

# Validate structure while ignoring node_modules and dist
sr validate

Ignored files/folders will not trigger errors, even if they exist or are missing.

During Generation

# Generate structure without affecting ignored files
sr generate . 

Ignored items are skipped to prevent accidental deletion or overwriting.

5. Tips

• Keep temporary, auto-generated, or sensitive files in .scaffoldignore.
• Always commit .scaffoldignore so the team shares the same ignored files.
• Use it alongside --allow-extra when validating to relax checks for certain files.

# Validate but allow extra ignored files
sr validate --allow-extra

.scaffoldignore is your safeguard for files that should exist outside Scaffoldrite’s enforced structure.

Next up: Project Configuration