You can control which files from your codebase should be kept hidden from
Gemini in IDX by including .aiexclude files in your project. Much like a
.gitignore file, an .aiexclude file tracks files that shouldn't be shared
with Gemini in IDX, including the chat experience as well as AI features
that operate in the editor. An .aiexclude file operates on files at or below
the directory that contains it.
Files covered by .aiexclude won't be indexed by Gemini when Codebase
Indexing is enabled. Additionally, .aiexclude will affect inline assistance
for covered files in the following ways:
- Code completion: Suggested code completions will not be available when editing covered files.
- Inline assistance: You'll be able to generate new code, but not modify existing code when editing covered files.
How to write .aiexclude files
An .aiexclude file follow the same syntax as a .gitignore file, with the
following differences:
- An empty .aiexclude file blocks all files in its directory and all
sub-directories. This is the same as a file that contains
**/*. .aiexcludefiles don't support negation (prefixing patterns with!).
Examples
Here are example .aiexclude file configurations:
Block all files named apikeys.txt at or below the directory that contains the
.aiexclude file:
apikeys.txt
Block all files with the .key file extension at or below the directory that
contains the .aiexclude file:
*.key
Block only the apikeys.txt file at the in the same directory as the
.aiexclude, but not any subdirectories.
/apikeys.txt
Block all files in the directory my/sensitive/dir and all subdirectories. The
path should be relative to the directory that contains the .aiexclude file.
my/sensitive/dir/