Kiroignore

The .kiroignore file prevents Kiro from reading specific files in your workspace. Using familiar gitignore syntax, you define patterns for files that should remain private - credentials, secrets, or content you prefer to keep out of agent context.

Where supported, ignore patterns apply across the agent's tools - blocked files stay blocked regardless of which tool tries to read them. Before returning file or text search results, Kiro checks each result against your read permissions and ignore rules. Paths and matching content from ignored or unreadable files do not appear in search results. Check the table below for surface availability.

The IDE enforces .kiroignore across supported agent tools. In CLI V3, support is limited to filtering content-search and filename-search results. Web support is not available yet.

• Security - Prevent Kiro from accessing files containing credentials, API keys, or other sensitive data
• Privacy - Exclude confidential information from AI interactions
• Compliance - Ensure Kiro doesn't access files that shouldn't be shared with external services
• Focus - Keep Kiro's context relevant by excluding large files or build artifacts

To exclude files in a specific project, create a .kiroignore file in your project root (or any subdirectory) and add patterns for files you want to exclude:

# Secrets and credentials
.env
.env.*
!.env.example
*.pem
*.key

# Private directories
secrets/
private/

Kiro skips any files matching your patterns.

Like .gitignore, you can place .kiroignore files in subdirectories to override or extend patterns from parent directories. Patterns in subdirectory ignore files take precedence for files within that subdirectory.

Kiro automatically honors global ignore files if they exist - no configuration needed:

• ~/.kiro/settings/kiroignore - Your global Kiro ignore patterns
• Git's global ignore file (configured via core.excludesfile in your git config) - only applied in git repositories

Use global ignore files for patterns you want applied across all your projects.

.kiroignore uses standard gitignore syntax:

# Environment files with credentials
.env
.env.local
.env.production

# Keep the template accessible
!.env.example

# Certificate and key files
*.pem
*.key
*.p12
credentials/

# Build outputs
dist/
build/
.next/

# Data files
*.sql
*.dump
data/exports/

# Customer data directories
customer-data/
pii/

# Audit and compliance docs
compliance/internal/
audit-reports/

• Use comments to document why files are ignored - helpful for team members
• Test patterns by asking Kiro to read an ignored file - it will indicate access is blocked
• Review patterns periodically as your project structure evolves
• Coordinate with your team on global patterns for consistent behavior across workspaces