Lesson 22 / 28

.gitignore

Keep build output, dependencies and secrets out of Git with .gitignore patterns.

Patterns to exclude

A .gitignore file at the repo root lists patterns Git should never stage — build output, dependencies, secrets.

node_modules/
dist/
.env
*.log

.gitignore only affects untracked files. If a file is already committed, remove it from tracking with git rm --cached <file> first.