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Pilum

Ignore Files

The .pilumignore file lets you exclude directories and services from Pilum’s automatic discovery. This is useful for skipping examples, tests, or archived services.

Basic Usage

Create a .pilumignore file in your project root:

.pilumignore
examples
test-*
archived/

When Pilum runs, it will skip any directories or pilum.yaml files matching these patterns.

Pattern Syntax

Directory Names

Match any directory with that name, anywhere in your project:

Terminal window
# Ignore any directory named "examples"
examples


# Ignore any directory named "fixtures"
fixtures

This matches:

  • examples/
  • services/examples/
  • deep/nested/examples/

Rooted Paths

End a pattern with / to match only at the project root:

Terminal window
# Only ignore the root examples/ directory
examples/


# Only ignore archived/ at root
archived/

This matches:

  • examples/ (at root)

This does NOT match:

  • services/examples/

Glob Patterns

Use * for wildcard matching:

Terminal window
# Ignore directories starting with "test-"
test-*


# Ignore directories ending with "-old"
*-old


# Ignore directories starting with underscore
_*

Comments

Lines starting with # are comments:

Terminal window
# Development fixtures
fixtures


# Old services pending deletion
archived/


# Template files
templates

Blank Lines

Blank lines are ignored for readability:

Terminal window
# Test directories
test-*
fixtures


# Archived services
archived/
*-deprecated

Example .pilumignore

.pilumignore
# Development and testing
examples
fixtures
test-*
testdata


# Build artifacts (shouldn't have pilum.yaml, but just in case)
dist
node_modules
vendor


# Archived/deprecated services
archived/
*-deprecated
*-old


# Template services (for pilum init)
templates/


# Documentation
docs

Debugging

Use --debug to see which paths are being ignored:

Terminal window
$ pilum list --debug
DEBUG: Loaded 5 ignore patterns from .pilumignore
DEBUG: Ignoring directory: examples
DEBUG: Ignoring directory: archived
DEBUG: Ignoring service: test-service/pilum.yaml

Common Patterns

Monorepo with Examples

my-project/
├── .pilumignore          # examples
├── services/
│   ├── api/
│   │   └── pilum.yaml    # ✓ discovered
│   └── worker/
│       └── pilum.yaml    # ✓ discovered
└── examples/
    └── demo-service/
        └── pilum.yaml    # ✗ ignored

Archived Services

.pilumignore
archived/
*-deprecated
my-project/
├── services/
│   ├── payments/
│   │   └── pilum.yaml    # ✓ discovered
│   └── payments-deprecated/
│       └── pilum.yaml    # ✗ ignored
└── archived/
    └── old-api/
        └── pilum.yaml    # ✗ ignored

Test Fixtures

.pilumignore
test-*
*_test
fixtures

Notes

  • Patterns are matched against the path relative to project root
  • Both directories and pilum.yaml files are checked against patterns
  • Ignored directories are skipped entirely (not traversed)
  • The file must be named exactly .pilumignore at the project root

Next Steps