mindignore

Control which files Mind can access using gitignore-style patterns

The .mindignore file prevents Mind from reading specific files in your workspace. Using familiar gitignore syntax, you define patterns for files that should remain private — credentials, secrets, or content you prefer to keep out of agent context.

Where supported, ignore patterns apply across the agent's tools — blocked files stay blocked regardless of which tool tries to read them. Before returning file or text search results, Mind checks each result against your read permissions and ignore rules. Paths and matching content from ignored or unreadable files do not appear in search results.

Capability	IDE	CLI	Web
Workspace `.mindignore`	✓	✓	—
Global ignore file (`~/.mind/settings/mindignore`)	✓	—	—

Why use .mindignore?

Security — Prevent Mind from accessing files containing credentials, API keys, or other sensitive data
Privacy — Exclude confidential information from AI interactions
Compliance — Ensure Mind doesn't access files that shouldn't be shared with external services
Focus — Keep Mind's context relevant by excluding large files or build artifacts

Setting up workspace ignore

To exclude files in a specific project, create a .mindignore file in your project root (or any subdirectory) and add patterns for files you want to exclude:

# Secrets and credentials
.env
.env.*
!.env.example
*.pem
*.key

# Private directories
secrets/
private/

The IDE reads ignore filenames from the Agent Ignore Files setting. Open Settings (Cmd+, on Mac or Ctrl+, on Windows/Linux), search for Agent Ignore Files, and verify .mindignore is present.

Subdirectory ignore files

Like .gitignore, you can place .mindignore files in subdirectories to override or extend patterns from parent directories. Patterns in subdirectory ignore files take precedence for files within that subdirectory.

Best practices

Use comments to document why files are ignored — helpful for team members
Test patterns by asking Mind to read an ignored file — it will indicate access is blocked
Review patterns periodically as your project structure evolves
Coordinate with your team on global patterns for consistent behaviour across workspaces

Global ignore files

Mind automatically honors global ignore files if they exist — no configuration needed:

~/.mind/settings/mindignore — Your global Mind ignore patterns
Git's global ignore file (configured via core.excludesfile in your git config) — only applied in git repositories

Pattern syntax

Pattern	Effect
file.txt	Ignore specific file
*.log	Ignore by extension
folder/	Ignore directory
**/temp	Ignore in any subdirectory
!keep.txt	Don't ignore (negation)

You cannot re-include a file if a parent directory is excluded. For example, if you ignore secrets/, adding !secrets/public.txt won't work. To include specific files from a directory, use more specific patterns instead of excluding the entire directory.

Examples

Protecting API keys and secrets

# Environment files with credentials
.env
.env.local
.env.production

# Keep the template accessible
!.env.example

# Certificate and key files
*.pem
*.key
*.p12
credentials/

Excluding build artifacts and data files

# Build outputs
dist/
build/
.next/

# Data files
*.sql
*.dump
data/exports/

Team compliance setup

# Customer data directories
customer-data/
pii/

# Audit and compliance docs
compliance/internal/
audit-reports/