After exploring how Repomix handled file-ignoring logic, I wrote the same type of feature in my own project, ContextWeaver. My goal was to make my repo ContextWeaver automatically skip irrelevant files such as node_modules, build folders, and logs while scanning repositories.
To achieve this, I created a new module called ignore.py and integrated it into main.py. The ignore.py file merges default ignore patterns, .gitignore entries, and any custom globs provided through the --ignore flag. In the main script, these patterns are used by a helper function should_skip() that decides whether each file should be kept or excluded.
I also added new CLI options such as --ignore, --no-default-ignores, and --verbose. When running the command "python3 src/main.py . --verbose", the program lists every file with “ADD” or “SKIP,” giving a clear view of what gets included. The resulting file list is saved to contextweaver_output.txt, making the tool more user friendly and Git-aware.
This was my first time reading another project’s source code to learn a feature and then reimplementing it myself. It showed me how to adapt ideas while writing cleaner, modular code. The next steps are already planned in my Issues page: adding nested .gitignore support, handling negation patterns (!pattern), benchmarking performance, and improving documentation. Through this lab, I learned how open source developers plan incremental improvements, file Issues, and build on one another’s work to make software evolve continuously.
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