Ignore Patterns

Block agent access to specific files and directories.

Overview

Coding Friend blocks access to common build artifacts and dependency directories by default. You can add custom patterns and override defaults using .coding-friend/ignore.

Default Patterns

The following directories are always blocked without any configuration:

node_modules    .pnpm           dist            build
.next           .nuxt           .svelte-kit     out
.output         __pycache__     .venv           venv
.tox            vendor          target          .git
coverage        .nyc_output     .turbo          .cache
.parcel-cache   .webpack

These patterns match anywhere in the path tree — e.g. node_modules blocks both node_modules/pkg/index.js and src/node_modules/dep/file.js.

Custom Patterns

Create .coding-friend/ignore in your project root to add custom patterns on top of defaults.

# Custom patterns are added to defaults
secrets/
generated/
*.sqlite

When this file exists, the effective pattern list is defaults + your patterns (merged, not replaced).

Overriding Defaults

Use ! prefix to remove a specific default pattern:

# Allow the build/ directory (remove it from defaults)
!build

# Allow vendor/ for Go projects
!vendor

# Your custom blocks still apply
secrets/

Only patterns that exactly match a default name are removed. For example, !build removes the build default but does not affect dist or other defaults.

Pattern Syntax

  • Simple directory names match anywhere in the path tree (like **/name)
  • Lines starting with # are comments
  • Empty lines are ignored
  • Trailing / is stripped for matching
  • !pattern negates (allows) a previously blocked pattern

Disabling the Hook

To disable scout-block entirely, set in .coding-friend/config.json:

{
  "scoutBlock": false
}

Example

# Keep all defaults, add project-specific blocks
data/fixtures/
.env.local

# Override: allow build/ for this project
!build