---
title: "Does Claude Code respect .gitignore when searching a repository?"  
description: "Does Claude Code respect .gitignore when searching a repository?"  
author: "Saurabh Verma"  
published: 2026-10-26  
updated: 2026-10-26  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162960/does-claude-code-respect-gitignore-when-searching-a-repository  
category: "Claude Code"  
tags: ["Claude", "Claude Code", "developer tools"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Does Claude Code respect .gitignore when searching a repository?

I’m using Claude Code in a repo with generated build files and folders excluded by `.gitignore`. When I ask it to search for a function or inspect a project, should those ignored files be out of scope automatically, or can they still show up in its results? I’d like to understand what it treats as searchable before relying on it for a large codebase.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162960/does-claude-code-respect-gitignore-when-searching-a-repository

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