resolution

Ignore File Resolution

Project Name: .treeignore
Project Manager: @ciroalo
Last Revision Date: April 3, 2026
Version: 0.1
Status: Stable (MVP subset)

This document describes how tree-it resolves which ignore file to use when generating directory trees.

Priority Order

tree-it resolves ignore rules using a strict priority:

Priority	Source	Capabilities
1	.treeignore	Global exclusions, profiles, tags
2	.gitignore	Exclusion patterns only
3	None	No exclusions — full directory tree is generated

Resolution Rules

1. If .treeignore exists in the target directory, it is used as the sole configuration source. The gitignore file is ignored completely, even if it also exists.

2. If .treeignore does not exist but .gitignore does, .gitignore is used for exclusion patterns only. Profiles and tags are not available in this mode.

3. If neither file exists, tree-it generates a complete directory tree with no exclusion rules applied.

Lookup Location

Ignore files are resolved only in the target directory being analyzed. tree-it does not walk up parent directories or search globally.

With an Explicit Path

tree-it ./my-project

Lookup occurs in:

./my-project/.treeignore
./my-project/.gitignore

Without a Path (Default)

tree-it

The current working directory is used:

./.treeignore
./.gitignore

.gitignore Fallback Behavior

When .gitignore is used as the fallback source:

• All non-comment, non-blank lines are treated as exclusion patterns

• Pattern matching follows the same rules as .treeignore patterns (see matchign.md)

• Profiles are not available - the --profile flag will produce an error

• Tags are not available

• Only the general tree is generated during default execution

Profile Requirement

The --profile flag requires .treeignore to exist. If a user runs:

tree-it --profile tree_docs

and .treeignore is not found in the target directory, tree-it will print an error and exit with a non-zero status code — even if .gitignore exists.

Summary

Scenario	Config source	Profiles available	Tags available
.treeignore exists	.treeignore	Yes	Parsed (not yet applied)
Only .gitignore exists	.gitignore	No	No
Neither file exists	None	No	No
--profile used without .treeignore	Error	—	—