untracked-templates

Purpose

Often, a repository needs an initial data file, SQLite database, or .env file just so clones don't crash on startup. However, you don't want local state updates during development to pollute the Git working tree.

Adding the file to .gitignore will prevent it from being tracked entirely (meaning anyone cloning the repo has to create the file from scratch).

Usage

Use the plumbing command git update-index --assume-unchanged instead.

1. Commit the Baseline Template

Create your blank database or example JSON file. Stage and commit it to git so that it exists in the tree for others.

git add data/local_db.json
git commit -m "chore: add default local database template"