Ability to ignore file in git but not Cursor

Ideas Feature Requests
,
1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

There’s no way currently to have a file or dir ignored in git but accessible for referencing in Cursor. This is useful for log files which I keep in an ignored directory, for example. Or files with instructions for Cursor. Please add the ability to configure that.

3

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

I’d love a way to keep files/folders out of Git while still being able to @ mention them in Cursor.

Right now, if I put a local docs/scratch folder in .gitignore, those files disappear from @ mentions in both Agent and Editor. If I remove them from .gitignore, they become untracked changes and completely blow up the Agent review pane with irrelevant noise.

So the current choice is basically:

  • keep the files ignored and lose access to them in chat
  • keep them visible to Cursor and pollute change review

My use case is local reference material like copied docs, notes, markdown files, PDFs, etc. that I never want committed, but do want available as context.

It would be really helpful if Cursor supported something like:

  • gitignored but still @-mentionable
  • or a separate AI-context include/exclude mechanism independent of Git

This would make Agent much more usable for workflows that depend on local reference files.