update-gitignore_skill

Overview

This skill creates or updates a .gitignore file tailored to the repository. It detects operating systems and project technologies, requests a combined template from the Toptal gitignore API, and preserves existing custom sections before applying changes.

How this skill works

The skill inspects the repository tree and takes provided arguments to detect OS and language/framework fingerprints (for example: macos,node,docker). It fetches a combined .gitignore template from the Toptal API, merges it with any existing .gitignore while preserving custom sections, and generates a unified file. Before writing, it shows a unified diff of the proposed changes for confirmation.

When to use it

• Initializing a new project and you need a comprehensive .gitignore tailored to detected technologies.
• Adding new languages, frameworks, or containers to an existing repo and you want consistent ignore rules.
• Refreshing or standardizing .gitignore entries across multiple contributors or environments.
• Migrating from a minimal .gitignore to one that covers OS and tooling-specific artifacts.
• When you need to preserve hand-crafted ignore rules while adding standard templates.

Best practices

• Pass explicit arguments for platforms or tools the detection might miss (e.g., docker, vscode).
• Keep custom project-specific sections wrapped with clear markers so the updater can preserve them.
• Review the presented diff before applying changes to avoid unintentionally ignoring files.
• Run the update locally or in a feature branch, and add the change to code review for team visibility.
• Re-run after adding new tooling (CI, IDE, build systems) to keep ignores up to date.

Example use cases

• New repository: auto-generate .gitignore for macOS, Node, and Docker based on detected files and arguments.
• Existing repo with a handcrafted section: add templates for VSCode and Python while keeping the custom rules intact.
• CI integration: update .gitignore in a branch and include the diff in a pull request for reviewer confirmation.
• Onboarding: standardize ignore files across multiple microservices by running the updater in each service repo.