Customize Search Exclusions in VS Code

Customize Search Exclusions in VS Code | Generated by AI

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In VS Code, the global file search respects the search exclusions you configure. You can tell it to ignore certain files or folders so they don’t appear in search results.

Here are the main ways:

1. Use `search.exclude` in settings.json

Open your settings (⌘, / Ctrl+, → top right “Open Settings (JSON)”) and add:

"search.exclude": {
  "**/node_modules": true,
  "**/dist": true,
  "**/*.log": true
}

The keys are glob patterns.
true means “exclude from search”.
Examples:
- **/node_modules → all node_modules folders
- **/*.log → all .log files anywhere
- **/build/** → everything inside build folders

2. Use `.gitignore`

If your project has a .gitignore, you can tell VS Code to respect it during search:

"search.useIgnoreFiles": true

That way, anything ignored by Git won’t show in search results.

3. Use `.ignore`

You can also create a .ignore file in your project root (same format as .gitignore) specifically for editor tooling. VS Code will respect it if search.useIgnoreFiles is enabled.

4. Quick Exclude in Search UI

When you search, hover over a file/folder in the results and click “Exclude”. This temporarily adds that path to search.exclude in settings.

👉 So the most common setup is:

Add general project-wide ignores in .gitignore.
Add editor-specific ignores (like dist, .vscode) in search.exclude.

Do you want me to show you how to exclude only during search but still keep those files in Explorer, or also hide them from the Explorer side panel?

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