Where does .eslintignore go?

It lives at your project root next to the ESLint config. ESLint reads it automatically when using the legacy config format, applying each pattern relative to the root.

Is .eslintignore still used with flat config?

Flat config in newer ESLint versions ignores the .eslintignore file and uses a global ignores entry instead. This builder still helps because you can paste the same patterns into that ignores array.

Why ignore node_modules?

Linting third-party dependencies is slow and meaningless since you do not control that code. ESLint ignores node_modules by default, but listing it makes the intent explicit and avoids surprises.

What glob syntax does it use?

Patterns use the same gitignore-style globbing ESLint supports: a trailing slash matches a directory, an asterisk matches within a path segment, and two asterisks match across segments.

Can I un-ignore a file?

Yes. Prefix a pattern with an exclamation mark to negate a previous ignore, for example to lint one generated file inside an otherwise ignored folder. Order matters, so place negations after the broad rule.

What is the .eslintignore Builder?

Outputs an .eslintignore with common paths such as node_modules, dist, build, coverage, and generated files, plus any custom patterns you add, so ESLint skips files it should never lint. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

.eslintignore Builder

Name: .eslintignore Builder
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Keep ESLint focused on the code that matters

Linting node_modules, build output, or generated bundles wastes time and floods the report with irrelevant errors. An .eslintignore file tells ESLint which paths to skip. This builder assembles a sensible default set plus your own patterns so the linter only checks code you actually maintain.

How it works

The file is a plain list of gitignore-style glob patterns, one per line, evaluated relative to the project root. Each preset group adds its conventional paths: dependencies add node_modules/, build output adds dist/ and build/, coverage adds coverage/, and generated files add things like *.min.js and *.d.ts. Custom patterns are appended verbatim. A trailing slash restricts a pattern to directories, and a leading ! negates an earlier rule so you can re-include a specific file. Blank lines and # comments are preserved for readability.

What each preset covers and why

node_modules/ is already ignored by ESLint by default, but listing it explicitly makes the intent clear in version control and avoids surprises on unusual project layouts where the default might not apply.

dist/ and build/ contain compiled JavaScript. Linting compiled output flags errors in generated code that you cannot fix directly, and it is significantly slower because compiled bundles tend to be large. Always exclude these.

coverage/ contains Istanbul/NYC HTML reports and instrumented source maps. They are not source files and linting them produces no useful information.

*.min.js matches minified bundles vendored into the repository. These are pre-built third-party code and should never be linted.

*.d.ts files are TypeScript declaration files generated from source. Linting them with @typescript-eslint rules produces duplicate errors that are already caught at the source level.

Glob patterns: the syntax you need

All patterns use gitignore-style globbing, not regex:

node_modules/ — matches the directory named node_modules at any depth
dist/** — matches everything inside dist
**/*.generated.js — matches any file with that suffix at any depth
!src/generated/keep.js — negates a previous match (re-includes this file)

For monorepos, add package-level paths explicitly: packages/*/dist/ matches the dist folder of every workspace package without also matching a top-level dist/ if you want to keep that.

Flat config (ESLint 9+)

ESLint 9’s flat config format does not read .eslintignore. Instead, add a config object with a ignores array at the top of eslint.config.js:

export default [
  { ignores: ["node_modules/", "dist/", "coverage/", "**/*.min.js"] },
  // ...other config
];

Copy the patterns from this builder directly into that array.

Tips

Enable the dependencies, build, and coverage presets to cover the common cases, then add project-specific lines such as public/vendor/** or src/generated/. If you need to lint one file inside an ignored folder, add a negation like !src/generated/keep.js after the broad rule.