File filtering

The FilterRail in the workbench is the surface for narrowing your output to the files you actually want to share with an assistant. Everything you type here applies live: the file tree updates as you type, with no Apply button.

Include and Ignore textareas

Two textareas drive pattern filtering:

• Include is empty by default. When you put glob patterns in it, only files matching at least one of them survive.
• Ignore carries a default list (the same list the CLI uses) of common build outputs, lockfiles, and binary directories. Patterns you add here exclude their matches.

Both textareas accept a comma-separated list of globs. Newlines between commas are fine for readability. The two interact in one surprising way described in Filter precedence: if Include has any content, Ignore is skipped entirely. Treat Include as an exclusive whitelist when you use it.

Pattern semantics

Patterns are matched against each file's path using the pathMatches helper in packages/core/src/path-utils/glob-match.ts. Two rules cover every case:

• A bare directory or filename pattern matches anywhere in the path. Typing node_modules matches apps/web/node_modules/react/index.js, not just a top-level node_modules directory. The same goes for *.log, which matches every .log file at any depth.
• A slashed pattern matches the full path or any suffix obtained by stripping leading directories. Typing src/**/*.ts matches both src/app.ts and myrepo/src/app.ts. This lets patterns work whether you dropped a folder by its repo name or by its inner src/.

A few examples that catch what most projects need:

node_modules, dist, build, .git, *.lock, *.log

src/**/*.ts, src/**/*.tsx, README.md

Presets

Above the textareas, a row of preset chips covers common stacks. Each chip rewrites both textareas in one click: the Include patterns and the Ignore patterns are replaced, not added to. Click a chip you already have selected and the textareas return to whatever was in them before.

Presets are baked into the build, not user-saveable. The export and import buttons in the Advanced section serialise the whole UserConfig (including your current patterns) to a JSON file you can share or restore.

Manual file toggles

Each file in the tree has a checkbox that overrides the pattern decision for that one file. Manual toggles are sticky: if you tick a checkbox to include a file, then later edit your Ignore textarea, the file stays included.

The counter line beneath the textareas shows two numbers: how many files are included in total, and how many of them are kept that way by an explicit manual override. A clear link next to the override count resets all manual decisions, leaving pattern filtering in charge again.

See also

• Filter precedence for the full ordering of pruning, validation, patterns, and overrides.
• Configuration for the Advanced section's other knobs (max file size, default remote source, config export/import).