What causes "Cannot exclude .gitignore" in jesseduffield/lazygit?

Select the file you want permanently ignored and exclude that instead

Cannot exclude .gitignore

Error message

Cannot exclude .gitignore

What it means

Thrown by FilesController.exclude when the selected node's path is exactly '.gitignore'. Excluding means adding a rule to .git/.gitignore (lazygit's exclude file); excluding .gitignore itself would hide it from the files panel and make future ignore/exclude edits invisible to the user, so it is blocked. Mirror of the ignore-side guard with its own message key (ExcludeGitIgnoreErr).

Source

Thrown at pkg/gui/controllers/files_controller.go:1028

				return self.ignoreOrExcludeTracked(node, trAction, f)
			},
		})

		return nil
	}
	return self.ignoreOrExcludeUntracked(node, trAction, f)
}

func (self *FilesController) ignore(node *filetree.FileNode) error {
	if node.GetPath() == ".gitignore" {
		return errors.New(self.c.Tr.Actions.IgnoreFileErr)
	}
	return self.ignoreOrExcludeFile(node, self.c.Tr.IgnoreTracked, self.c.Tr.IgnoreTrackedPrompt, self.c.Tr.Actions.IgnoreExcludeFile, self.c.Git().WorkingTree.Ignore)
}

func (self *FilesController) exclude(node *filetree.FileNode) error {
	if node.GetPath() == ".gitignore" {
		return errors.New(self.c.Tr.Actions.ExcludeGitIgnoreErr)
	}

	return self.ignoreOrExcludeFile(node, self.c.Tr.ExcludeTracked, self.c.Tr.ExcludeTrackedPrompt, self.c.Tr.Actions.ExcludeFile, self.c.Git().WorkingTree.Exclude)
}

func (self *FilesController) ignoreOrExcludeMenu(node *filetree.FileNode) error {
	return self.c.Menu(types.CreateMenuOptions{
		Title: self.c.Tr.Actions.IgnoreExcludeFile,
		Items: []*types.MenuItem{
			{
				LabelColumns: []string{self.c.Tr.IgnoreFile},
				OnPress: func() error {
					if err := self.ignore(node); err != nil {
						return err
					}
					return nil
				},
				Keys: menuKey('i'),

View on GitHub (pinned to c477a2959b)

Solutions

Select the file you want permanently ignored and exclude that instead
If .gitignore clutters your view, filter it with lazygit's filter ( '/') rather than excluding it

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Guard exclude the same way as ignore:
if node.GetPath() == ".gitignore" {
    return errors.New("refusing to exclude .gitignore")
}

Prevention

Never add .gitignore to .git/info/exclude
Use view filters instead of exclusion to hide config files
Apply the same self-reference guard to any new ignore/exclude entry points

When it happens

Trigger: Choosing 'exclude' from the ignore/exclude menu (or the exclude keybinding) while .gitignore is the selected file.

Common situations: Same as the ignore case: .gitignore selected in the files panel and the user reaches for exclude instead of ignore, often not realizing which file is highlighted.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jesseduffield/lazygit@c477a2959b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f2a4fdb69387f673. Report an issue: GitHub.