.copilotignore support

[linux-china]

Too much discussion about GitHub Copilot telemetry for internal projects, and I want to use Copilot for internal projects too, such as Makefile, Shell scripts, some unit tests etc, and they are not sensitive, and Copilot can save my life to edit these files.

Lots of ignore files now, for example:

How about to introduce .copilotignore file, and GitHub Copilot plugin will ignore these files for AI assistance to avoid telemetry problem.

src/main pom.xml .env 

[rampatra]

Is there any progress or thoughts on this? Or, is there a different way now to ignore files being sent to Microsoft, now that we have GitHub Copilot for enterprise?

And, even if I disable this setting, my code is still being sent to Microsoft for Copilot to work, am I correct?

[asheroto]

Curious about this as well.

Came from https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/11254

[neverbot]

Copilot Chat seems to think that .copilotignore is already working:

And VS Code - Insiders detects the file and gives it its own icon:

But cannot confirm if it is really doing something.

[pjg]

Doesn't work when I tried this using vim's copilot plugin.

[Volosojui]

It still doesn't work in vscode. it's a pity

[jakemayfield]

Doesn't work for me in vscode or neovim.
I think the llm was hallucinating on the use of .copilotignore.

[linux-china]

@neverbot it does not work.

[Magdii222]

Ich lasse mich sagen, dass die Idee einer .copilotignore-Datei, wie sie im Bild beschrieben wird, existiert, ihre Funktionalität hängt jedoch stark von der verwendeten Copilot-Version und eventuell installierten Erweiterungen ab.

[vinaypotluri]

Any update on when this will be supported ?

[Weemee]

Seems to be working now :)
VSCode v1.78.2 (commit: b3e4e68a0bc097f0ae7907b217c1119af9e03435)
GitHub Copilot v1.88.132

[spenserblack]

This is only for the VS Code plugin, right? I'm assuming this doesn't work with the vim plugin.

[asheroto]

Looks like this is pretty buggy at the moment. They might still be working on it.

The message that says "Copilot is ignoring this file" does come up, but after typing some and saving, it disappears and stops working. I tried opening a js file directly, and opening a folder and then the file, same issue.

If I disable Copilot and re-enable, it detects .copilotignore for a few seconds, shows that icon with the strike through it and the message, but then it forgets about it after typing and saving. The other weird thing is that if the .copilotignore file is open, it detects it quickly, but then when I switch back to another file and start typing it forgets about it and the icon changes back.

Code_LE4aB4pmiP.mp4

Also curious to know if:

• It will work in subfolders or must you put it in the root of the project?
• Will it work if you open a file within a folder containing .copilotignore but not the project folder itself?

Version info
GitHub Copilot v1.88.132
Version: 1.78.2 (system setup)
Commit: b3e4e68a0bc097f0ae7907b217c1119af9e03435
Date: 2023-05-10T14:39:26.248Z
Electron: 22.5.2
Chromium: 108.0.5359.215
Node.js: 16.17.1
V8: 10.8.168.25-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22621
Sandboxed: No

[stormdz2]

To continue what @asheroto said, this feature seems to be implemented in UI only, the moment I type in any ignored file it immediately enables copilot again. It's also not mentioned anywhere in the actual documentation so I'm thinking this is not actually implemented. Happens in both nightly and normal release, using ubuntu and copilot 1.88.136.

[Weemee]

I could re-create what @asheroto showed in their video, so I decided to go deeper, but didn't find any solution for the use of a .copilotignore file. For VS Code users using the official Copilot plugin for VS Code you can edit this in the settings. Does however not help the original problem posted by @linux-china, but can hopefully help some of you until the .copilotignore file is fully implemented.

[stormdz2]

In the most recent versions even just the visual indicators of copilotignore supposedly working have dissapeared, it wasn't working anyway but now it's not vague anymore whether or not it is implemented, it isn't.

[hiago-balbino]

Any update about this?

[deiv061]

Any news about this?

[panozzaj]

Since I am subscribed to this issue and use the Vim version of Copilot, I asked ChatGPT about this:

https://chat.openai.com/share/bae6b22c-31f1-435f-aac0-05812fbe7c73
(No idea if this works, but seems at least reasonable. You'd need to change to use b:copilot_enabled at least.)

Maybe there is an equivalent plugin for VSCode?

[panozzaj]

With some iteration, I ended up turning this into a Vim plugin that seems to do what I wanted it to:
https://github.com/panozzaj/vim-copilot-ignore

[JulienVilleneau]

Anyone know when this feature will be available in GA ?

[JulienVilleneau]

A first answer during GitHub Universe 2023 : https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/managing-copilot-business/configuring-content-exclusions-for-github-copilot

[asheroto]

Thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately looks like it may only be available with GitHub Copilot Business users which costs $19/month/user compared to the individual $10/month/user. Source.

Maybe .copilotignore will come along one day?

Looks like this .copilotignore request is discussed a lot in the community:
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions?discussions_q=copilotignore

[ELLIOTTCABLE]

Does the business version even support their own GitHub Enterprise? The instructions are all about public, GitHub.com interfaces to click on — nothing about a filename or anything.

How would I configure this for our organization's GitHub Enterprise-hosted repositories, which we edit in VScode? /=

[spookyuser]

pls

[NoCopy]

How about to introduce .copilotignore file, and GitHub Copilot plugin will ignore these files for AI assistance to avoid telemetry problem.

This same discussion is going on for IntelliJ as well, and possibly other AI solutions. I would like to plead with the powers that be that you all get on the same page and create a proper standard for this. Not specifically a .SOMEIDEAI-ignore file.

Can we please just create a
.ai-telemetry-ignore which will be cross IDE / Cross AI solution.

[asheroto]

That's a great idea.

[mathieumagalhaes]

This is my way of implementing .copilotignore in VS Code while waiting for official support:
mattickx/copilotignore-vscode

[owzim]

@asheroto be aware that copilot still reads the content of inactive tabs/editors. The plugin, at it's current state only disables copilot for matching files if it is the currently active tab.

See the issue here: mathieumagalhaes/copilotignore-vscode#4

[mathieumagalhaes]

As discussed in mathieumagalhaes/copilotignore-vscode#4
Open for contributions to the repo 👍
I'm still advocating for this feature to be added to the original Copilot extension

[asheroto]

@owzim ah shoot. I had not investigated that deeply. Glad you found that out. That means, at the moment, the plugin is not an effective measure of disabling Copilot.

[GabrielaMichelon]

Hi @mattickx, does this solution work also to disable GitHub Copilot Chat or only the autocompletion? Thank you for your time and support.

[mathieumagalhaes]

@GabrielaMichelon It does not work for Copilot Chat. Neither does content exclusion from Github I think unfortunately.

[Glitch-Cloud-Code]

I would like to request a feature to be able to restrict the copilot chat feature from accessing certain files. Currently, in order to comply with my organization rules about perserving sensetive data we're required to remove it manually before using the chat functionality which causes alot of friction. Thanks!

[GabrielaMichelon]

I actually have the same problem, and I wonder why GitHub still did not provide such feature to exclude content from the GitHub Copilot Chat.

[okineadev]

Good afternoon, I suggest using the name .aiexclude instead of .copilotignore so that this file is suitable for everyone, both Gemini in Android Studio and GitHub Copilot

Link to .aiexclude file documentation - https://developer.android.com/studio/preview/gemini/aiexclude

[nabe1653]

It is great but we may want to use separated config too. (e.g. service A will support local model but not B, so allow reading credential file by only A.)

I think we can use both config name instead of replacing. If there's both .copilotignore and .aiexclude, IDE can follow AND of both rule.

[willnationsdev]

JetBrains IDEs also use .aiignore, so that's at least 3 different naming conventions that exist in major products. There are likely several more.

[Bessonov]

We are often handling very sensitive data, and GitHub Copilot isn't usable in its current state. Plain excludes aren't helpful because you can never know how files are named in people's workspaces. What we need is a combination of include/exclude patterns, like those done in negating matches. For example:

** # exclude everything by default !**/*.ts # include TypeScript files !**/*.java # include Java files **/*config* # exclude all config files, even if it is config.ts 

[Bessonov]

@nearlythere no, not even close. I don't want the file db-dump-from-prod.sql is accidentally pushed to GitHub. I also don't want any other files, even if the name is something like db.zip, to be uploaded unless explicitly allowed by the configuration.

@okineadev could you please explain your downvote?

[okineadev]

@nearlythere no, not even close. I don't want the file db-dump-from-prod.sql is accidentally pushed to GitHub. I also don't want any other files, even if the name is something like db.zip, to be uploaded unless explicitly allowed by the configuration.

@okineadev could you please explain your downvote?

What's the point of excluding all files and including only the code?

And if there are a million such extensions in the project?

Assuming there is support for .copilotignore, then let it ignore all .env* files and files that are in .gitignore by default

I hope you added the db-dump-from-prod.sql file to gitignore

You also said that you didn't want to push it specifically, so the problem is in .gitignore and not in Copilot

[Bessonov]

@okineadev I see, you're relatively new to software development. I have no issues explaining it a third time.

First of all, the include/exclude flow pattern allows you to perform content exclusion similar to Copilot, but with more flexibility. This means you wouldn't lose any functionality.

Second, as CTO, it’s my responsibility to minimize mistakes. Developers in industries like healthcare or insurance in Germany often work with very sensitive data that cannot be uploaded to any external service. If you have, say, 15 developers, there’s no way to ensure all of them know how to properly store sensitive information. It’s not because they are incompetent, but because people make mistakes - it’s human nature. By excluding everything by default, I can significantly reduce the chances of such mistakes happening.

I hope you added the db-dump-from-prod.sql file to gitignore

I don’t need to. That’s the whole point of my request.

Third, I’ve worked on projects that involved millions of person-days. Trust me, there’s no such thing as millions of extensions.

You also said that you didn't want to push it specifically, so the problem is in .gitignore and not in Copilot

I don't get your point. What's the relation between them? And why is .gitignore my problem?

[okineadev]

@okineadev I see, you're relatively new to software development. I have no issues explaining it a third time.

First of all, the include/exclude flow pattern allows you to perform content exclusion similar to Copilot, but with more flexibility. This means you wouldn't lose any functionality.

Second, as CTO, it’s my responsibility to minimize mistakes. Developers in industries like healthcare or insurance in Germany often work with very sensitive data that cannot be uploaded to any external service. If you have, say, 15 developers, there’s no way to ensure all of them know how to properly store sensitive information. It’s not because they are incompetent, but because people make mistakes—it’s human nature. By excluding certain things by default, I can significantly reduce the chances of such mistakes happening.

I hope you added the db-dump-from-prod.sql file to gitignore

I don’t need to. That’s the point of my request.

Third, I’ve worked on projects that involved millions of person-days. Trust me, there’s no such thing as millions of extensions.

You also said that you didn't want to push it specifically, so the problem is in .gitignore and not in Copilot

I don't get your point. What's the relation between them? And why is .gitignore my problem?

I canceled the dislike, do whatever you want.

[spenserblack]

I just want to summarize negation since there seems to be some confusion on how this is useful. Ignore files are typically opt-out. Which means that every file is included until explicitly ignored. That's fine for projects where you can dump every unwanted file in one place, like a dist/ folder.

Using negation like this:

*!/path/to/safe-file

Transforms the ignore file from opt-out to opt-in. Generally, when you deal with a lot of files that should be excluded, this can be a useful pattern. An example that I think many can understand would be a dotfiles repository. Let's say you want to turn your home directory into a repository and commit your favorite config files. There's a lot of files you wouldn't want to commit in your home directory, with lots of different paths. Rather than identify every file/folder you want to ignore, it can be easier to ignore everything and then incrementally allow files as you discover which ones you want to track.

So, bringing this concept back to .copilotignore, exclusions look very useful when, by default, you don't want to allow an AI service to read your files, except for a few known safe paths.

The concept of opt-in vs. opt-out isn't unique to ignore files. Typically, opt-in is safer, because it's usually safer to accidentally block something than to accidentally allow something.

In fact, using an opt-in pattern in a .copilotignore would probably be more useful than in .gitignore IMO. This is because accidentally committing and pushing files takes several explicit actions (git commit, git push), while accidentally sending a file's data to an AI service is as simple as opening the file in an editor.

[daveycodez]

Lol Copilot DOA! It's indexing my pnpm.lock.yaml LMAO and using it as context. RIP

[SinaKarimi7]

Recently, I added this file to my project to exclude some files. When I select Copilot as a reviewer in PR, it doesn't supported the ignore file:

.copilotignore: Language not supported

[wreiske]

This is what I needed to get copilot to finally ignore things: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/reference/workspace-context#_what-content-is-included-in-the-workspace-index

Copilot indexes relevant text files that are part of your current project. This is not limited to specific file types or programming languages, however Copilot automatically skips over some common file types that are typically not relevant to @workspace questions, such as .tmp or .out files. Copilot also excludes any files that are excluded from VS Code using the vscode://settings/files.exclude setting or that are part of the .gitignore file.

I had to fully close and reload the extension for it to start working. YMMV.

Also worth noting I am on the pre-release version of Copilot.

Version: 1.323.1582 Last Updated: 2025-05-25, 13:46:28 

[neverbot]

If I remember correctly, if you include files in the files.exclude setting, they do not even appear on the file explorer, making them unusable in vscode, not only for copilot... you probably will even forget they exist. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I've been subscribed to this discussion for two years, I can't believe something so obvious does not have an immediate solution :(

[daveycodez]

Just use Cursor tbf

[behrangsa]

When is this going to be supported? Copilot was reading from my .next folder, which is a Nicht Nicht!

[runephilosof-abtion]

You should put that folder in .gitignore or similar for your vcs.

[dhaval-chandnani]

On windows, I achieved this by making the 'node_modules' folder hidden. Give it a try.

[asmaier]

AI Assistant from JetBrains already supports such a mechanism.

If your project already contains a .cursorignore, .codeiumignore, or .aiexclude file, there is no need to create a separate .aiignore file, as these files are also supported. As long as they are located in the root folder of the project, they will be used to restrict AI Assistant's access to the specified files and folders.

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/ai-assistant/disable-ai-assistant.html#restrict-ai-assistant-usage-in-specific-files-or-folders

[dmgoldstein1]

Here I am, three and a half years later, adding my one voice to the chorus. Please give us .copilotignore!

[firezdog]

This is a huge security concern. Adding this needs to be a top priority or no organization can in good conscience use copilot. Even if it exists, it needs to be extremely obvious and guaranteed that any file can be ignored on demand.

[dmgoldstein1]

According to https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-content-exclusion/exclude-content-from-copilot

Who can use this feature?

Repository administrators, organization owners, and enterprise owners can manage content exclusion settings. People with the "Maintain" role for a repository can view, but not edit, content exclusion settings for that repository.

Organizations with a Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise plan.

[dmgoldstein1]

So just to elaborate, and partially correct, my previous comment, in order to use this feature, according to https://web.archive.org/web/20250827141858/https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-content-exclusion/exclude-content-from-copilot you have to meet the following requirements:

You have to be working on code that's in a GitHub repository. I suppose if someone trusts GitHub Copilot, they're probably not going to have a problem storing their code on GitHub, but it's still worth pointing out that while I can use the VS Code Copilot extension on code that only exists on my local machine, tracked by my local Git, if I want to use content exclusion for GitHub Copilot, I have to use GitHub not just for Copilot, but for actually managing my files.

You have to be a repo admin, or an organization or enterprise owner.

And according to https://web.archive.org/web/20250827142610/https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/content-exclusion. last but not least...

⚠️⚠️⚠️ "Content exclusion is currently not supported in Edit and Agent modes of Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code." ⚠️⚠️⚠️

[firezdog]

So just to elaborate, and partially correct, my previous comment, in order to use this feature, according to https://web.archive.org/web/20250827141858/https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-content-exclusion/exclude-content-from-copilot you have to meet the following requirements:

You have to be working on code that's in a GitHub repository. I suppose if someone trusts GitHub Copilot, they're probably not going to have a problem storing their code on GitHub, but it's still worth pointing out that while I can use the VS Code Copilot extension on code that only exists on my local machine, tracked by my local Git, if I want to use content exclusion for GitHub Copilot, I have to use GitHub not just for Copilot, but for actually managing my files.

You have to be a repo admin, or an organization or enterprise owner.

And according to https://web.archive.org/web/20250827142610/https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/content-exclusion. last but not least...

⚠️⚠️⚠️ "Content exclusion is currently not supported in Edit and Agent modes of Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code." ⚠️⚠️⚠️

this is also a serious problem. i need to be able to exclude from the workspace regardless of whether there's a git repository or where it is stored. i am sharing my data with copilot, and I need a way to opt out if needed. You can make sure you keep sensitive information outside of workspaces, but that isn't always realistic nor is it in any way convenient.

[Bessonov]

@dmgoldstein1 I don't use github repo for that 🤷

[mmusenbr]

@dmgoldstein1 At least according to https://web.archive.org/web/20250827141858/https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-content-exclusion/exclude-content-from-copilot#example-of-repositories-and-paths-in-organization-settings you have possibilities to add excludse for external repos and FS only as well.
But for the first for me it is not clear what is matched when I add a [email protected], what if someone clones via https, etc... and for the FS is is super clumsy, you need to add all of them again? But then they are global for everyone...
So I am not sure how this is maintainable.

[Willian-Zhang]

This is the single reason I'm not trying out copilot over current cursor setup. It's too risky for any serious project, not even worth a try.

[HarwinBorger]

I vouch for a global and standardized .aiignore file. This is already done by Jetbrains ( https://www.jetbrains.com/help/junie/aiignore.html )

It is time to standardize and get rit of all the custom AI Instructions and AI Ignore files for Claude, Jetbrains, Cursor, Copilot etc.

In our projects half the files in root folders are for all the different AI tools we use. It's a big mess.

[linux-china]

It's a long time. and at first I just want Copilot to ignore .env and application.properties files because some sensitive data/config in these files. Now all AI cod agents will scan files under the project directory, and some agents will scan git commit messages. I built a CLI tool and JetBrains IDE plugin to encrypt and protect config file, and now you can even commit .env into git repository, and AI agents can read key names for code generation but no sensitive data leak. https://github.com/linux-china/dotenvx-rshttps://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/28148-dotenvx

[rosmur]

How is this still open with no acknowledgement, let alone any sort of traction or pathway to closure after nearly 4 years of being open?

[htxryan]

Absolute insanity that some kind of ignore functionality is still not supported. Small thing, but limiting in weird ways that make Copilot awkward to use in real world projects.

[SamuelMiller]

Has this been implemented yet? How do we get Copilot to ignore certain files?