Ignore a File in Git Without Editing .gitignore

I work across multiple repositories. When you're juggling that many repos, it's easy to lose track of which one you're in. I kept finding myself squinting at the repo name in VS Code to make sure I wasn't about to make changes in the wrong project.

That's when I discovered Peacock, a VS Code extension that lets you change the editor color based on the project. A tiny visual cue, but a huge time-saver when you're context-switching all day.

The problem

The problem? One of our repos doesn't ignore the .vscode/settings.json file. So every time I tweaked Peacock's colors, Git would flag .vscode/settings.json as modified. Before committing, I had to manually stash or reset those changes so I wouldn't accidentally push them upstream.

I didn't want to touch .gitignore since teammates rely on committing shared project settings. What I needed was a way for Git to quietly ignore my tweaks without disrupting the repo for everyone else.

The Command That Saved My Sanity

After some digging, I learned about a neat trick:

# Tell Git to ignore local changes to this file
git update-index --skip-worktree .vscode/settings.json

From that point on, Git acted like the file was untouched, even if I completely changed the colors inside it. When I rangit status, nothing showed up. No more accidental commits, no more manual cleanup before pushing.

And if I ever need Git to notice changes again:

git update-index --no-skip-worktree .vscode/settings.json

When to Use It
Use --skip-worktree When:

• The repo includes files that should be tracked, but your local edits aren't relevant to anyone else (like editor configs, test configs, or local scripts).
• You want to keep your workflow smooth without constantly cleaning up changes before commits.

Avoid it when:

• You need to collaborate on that file with your team.
• Forgetting about the "skip" could cause important updates to be missed.

Final Thoughts
Peacock solved my repo-switching confusion. And git update-index --skip-worktree solved the annoying "settings file keeps showing up in git status" problem. Together, they've made my day-to-day dev flow smoother.

Sometimes it's not about the big tools or frameworks - it's the little tweaks that save you the most brain cycles.

Comments

[Mario Camou]

You can also git config --global excludesfile ~/.gitignore. Now any paths you add to ~/.gitignore get ignored in every project. I use that to have my own personal workspace directory in every project that will never be committed.

[Antonio Alonso Alarcon]

Another way (this is a per local repo option): listing the local file(s) and/or path(s) you do not want git to consider (in a given local repo) in the .git/info/exclude file on that repo (as documented here).

[Jakub Narębski]

Note that while using the --skip-worktree is safe (in that you won't loose your changes), as opposed to --assume-unchanged (where you lie to Git), it makes working in the repository more hassle, though it depends on the Git commands you use.

A better solution would be to use either per-user excludes file (see comment by Mario Camou), or per-repo excludes file (see comment by Antonio Alonso Alarcon).