A `.gitignore` file stored in the root of a project directory tells git to ignore specific folders, files, or file types. This behavior is useful to avoid cluttering your git history with configuration files and especially for hiding [[secrets]] from GitHub. See a collection of helpful `.gitignore` templates by project type [here](https://github.com/github/gitignore). > [!example]- Additional Resources > - [Documentation](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore) If you made the mistake of committing a file you intended to ignore before including it in the `.gitignore` file, you must [[remove a file from git history]], deleting the file will not exclude it from git and thus GitHub.