Exclusion Patterns

Overview

Exclusion Patterns let you filter files from your scan results based on directory names in their paths. This is useful for hiding files from build directories, version control folders, dependency folders, or any other locations you want to ignore.

Files matching exclusion patterns are hidden from results but remain in the database—you can add or remove patterns at any time to adjust what's shown.

Accessing Exclusion Patterns

  1. Go to your scan's overview page
  2. Click Manage Exclusions in the scan details section, or navigate to Exclusion Patterns from the scan menu

Adding an Exclusion Pattern

  1. Enter a pattern in the text field (e.g., node_modules/)
  2. Click Add Pattern

Patterns match directory names in file paths. For example:

  • node_modules/ hides files in any node_modules directory
  • .git/ hides files in any .git directory
  • build/ hides files in any build directory
  • __pycache__/ hides Python cache directories

Common Exclusion Patterns

Here are useful patterns for common scenarios:

Development Dependencies

  • node_modules/ - JavaScript/Node.js dependencies
  • vendor/ - PHP Composer or Go dependencies
  • .bundle/ - Ruby Bundler gems
  • packages/ - .NET NuGet packages
  • target/ - Rust/Maven build output

Version Control

  • .git/ - Git repository data
  • .svn/ - Subversion repository data
  • .hg/ - Mercurial repository data

Build Output

  • build/ - Common build output directory
  • dist/ - Distribution/build output
  • out/ - Compiled output
  • bin/ - Binary output
  • obj/ - Object files
  • __pycache__/ - Python bytecode cache

IDE and Editor Files

  • .idea/ - JetBrains IDE settings
  • .vscode/ - VS Code settings
  • .vs/ - Visual Studio settings

System Files

  • .Trash/ - macOS trash
  • $RECYCLE.BIN/ - Windows recycle bin

Removing an Exclusion Pattern

Click Remove next to any pattern in the list to delete it. Files that were hidden by that pattern will reappear in your results.

How Patterns Work

Patterns match against the full file path. A pattern like node_modules/ will match any file that has /node_modules/ in its path, regardless of where it appears.

For example, the pattern build/ would match:

  • /project/build/output.js
  • /home/user/project/build/data.json
  • /nested/deep/build/file.txt

But would not match:

  • /project/rebuild/file.js (the word "build" appears but not as a directory)
  • /project/building/file.js (partial match doesn't count)