.continueignore
.continueignore excludes files from the Continue assistant’s indexing and context.
This week: 0% of 499 scanned repos had .continueignore.See Radar #4 →
What it is
.continueignore is a gitignore-style file used by the Continue extension to skip matching files when building context and codebase retrieval.
Why use it
It keeps secrets and irrelevant files out of Continue’s context and embeddings, applied independently of git.
How to set it up
Create .continueignore in your project root and add patterns to exclude, one per line.
Example .continueignore
.env
.env.*
*.pem
*.key
secrets/What to exclude
Common sensitive categories worth adding to .continueignore:
FAQ
- Does Continue respect .gitignore too?
- Continue generally skips gitignored files, and .continueignore adds assistant-specific exclusions on top.
Check your own project
158 of 499 repos this week exposed sensitive paths to AI tools. Check yours in seconds:
Run the same local check with Offsend CLI:
brew install --cask offsend/tap/offsend-cli
offsend show
offsend prepare --dry-runEverything runs locally. No file contents are uploaded.