Add a .rooginore option to exclude sensitive files from being read

[PoliTwit1984]

Discussed in #144

^{Originally posted by watzon December 16, 2024}
I filed this as a feature request in the main Cline repo, but then I discovered Roo-Cline. It would be nice if the glob service respected .gitignore (and possibly a .clineignore) and didn't make any assumptions. Right now pkg is one of the auto ignored directories which poses a major issue for lots of Go repositories.

[PoliTwit1984]

We rely on a .clineignore file (similar to .gitignore) in the workspace.
Use the well-tested ignore npm package to parse ignore patterns.
Key Class: RooclineIgnoreController

Loads patterns from .clineignore.
Watches for file changes (via vscode.workspace.createFileSystemWatcher).
Provides methods like validateAccess(filePath: string): boolean to check if a file should be ignored.
Provides filterPaths(paths: string[]): string[] to filter out ignored files in bulk.

Where It Lives

Create a dedicated folder (e.g., src/core/ignore/) with a RooclineIgnoreController.ts.
Keep helper utilities (like fileExistsAtPath) in a utils folder.
Integration Points

In your extension’s main activation code (e.g., extension.ts), instantiate and initialize the controller, passing the workspace root as cwd.
Wherever you’re about to read or list files, call validateAccess() or filterPaths() first.
File Watching & Updates

Whenever .clineignore is created, changed, or deleted, the controller reloads patterns automatically.
Testing & Maintenance

Write unit tests to confirm .clineignore patterns are respected.
Keep file I/O routed through the controller so it’s harder to accidentally bypass ignore rules.

Key Benefits

Clear separation of ignore logic into one class.
Minimal risk of merge conflicts—just ensure all new file-handling code calls the controller.
The .clineignore approach is familiar, so the team and users can easily adapt patterns from .gitignore usage.

[piotrpalek]

Please also take into consideration to respect overrides of .gitignore in .clineignore (or .rooignore). It would be nice to un-ignore some directories that are ignored in .gitignore.

My usecase is that I want Roo to write down some markdown files for it's own "memory", but don't want to have that in my git repo as it's temporary

[a-bran]

@piotrpalek To be fair, thats what .git/info/exclude is for
clineignore and gitignore should be treated as separate as they treat separate goals

[hannesrudolph]

implimented in #1367