feat: Add !include .file directive support for .clineignore (RooCodeInc#1777)

* feat: Add `!include .file` directive support for `.clineignore`

* changeset

* add warning

* fix

* revert

* reduce diff

* reduce diff

Author: watany-dev

.changeset/nervous-papayas-bathe.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"claude-dev": patch
+---
+
+Add !include .file directive support for .clineignore

src/core/ignore/ClineIgnoreController.test.ts

@@ -242,4 +242,52 @@ describe("ClineIgnoreController", () => {
 			result.should.be.true()
 		})
 	})
+
+	describe("Include Directive", () => {
+		it("should load patterns from an included file", async () => {
+			// Create a .gitignore file with patterns "*.log" and "debug/"
+			await fs.writeFile(path.join(tempDir, ".gitignore"), ["*.log", "debug/"].join("\n"))
+
+			// Create a .clineignore file that includes .gitignore and adds an extra pattern "secret.txt"
+			await fs.writeFile(path.join(tempDir, ".clineignore"), ["!include .gitignore", "secret.txt"].join("\n"))
+
+			// Initialize the controller to load the updated .clineignore
+			controller = new ClineIgnoreController(tempDir)
+			await controller.initialize()
+
+			// "server.log" should be ignored due to the "*.log" pattern from .gitignore
+			controller.validateAccess("server.log").should.be.false()
+			// "debug/app.js" should be ignored due to the "debug/" pattern from .gitignore
+			controller.validateAccess("debug/app.js").should.be.false()
+			// "secret.txt" should be ignored as specified directly in .clineignore
+			controller.validateAccess("secret.txt").should.be.false()
+			// Other files should be allowed
+			controller.validateAccess("app.js").should.be.true()
+		})
+
+		it("should handle non-existent included file gracefully", async () => {
+			// Create a .clineignore file that includes a non-existent file
+			await fs.writeFile(path.join(tempDir, ".clineignore"), ["!include missing-file.txt"].join("\n"))
+
+			// Initialize the controller
+			controller = new ClineIgnoreController(tempDir)
+			await controller.initialize()
+
+			// Validate access to a regular file; it should be allowed because the missing include should not break everything
+			controller.validateAccess("regular-file.txt").should.be.true()
+		})
+
+		it("should handle non-existent included file gracefully alongside a valid pattern", async () => {
+			// Test with an include directive for a non-existent file alongside a valid pattern ("*.tmp")
+			await fs.writeFile(path.join(tempDir, ".clineignore"), ["!include non-existent.txt", "*.tmp"].join("\n"))
+
+			controller = new ClineIgnoreController(tempDir)
+			await controller.initialize()
+
+			// "file.tmp" should be ignored because of the "*.tmp" pattern
+			controller.validateAccess("file.tmp").should.be.false()
+			// Files that do not match "*.tmp" should be allowed
+			controller.validateAccess("file.log").should.be.true()
+		})
+	})
 })

src/core/ignore/ClineIgnoreController.ts

@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ export class ClineIgnoreController {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Load custom patterns from .clineignore if it exists
+	 * Load custom patterns from .clineignore if it exists.
+	 * Supports "!include <filename>" to load additional ignore patterns from other files.
 	 */
 	private async loadClineIgnore(): Promise<void> {
 		try {
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ export class ClineIgnoreController {
 			if (await fileExistsAtPath(ignorePath)) {
 				const content = await fs.readFile(ignorePath, "utf8")
 				this.clineIgnoreContent = content
-				this.ignoreInstance.add(content)
+				await this.processIgnoreContent(content)
 				this.ignoreInstance.add(".clineignore")
 			} else {
 				this.clineIgnoreContent = undefined
@@ -79,6 +80,61 @@ export class ClineIgnoreController {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Process ignore content and apply all ignore patterns
+	 */
+	private async processIgnoreContent(content: string): Promise<void> {
+		// Optimization: first check if there are any !include directives
+		if (!content.includes("!include ")) {
+			this.ignoreInstance.add(content)
+			return
+		}
+
+		// Process !include directives
+		const combinedContent = await this.processClineIgnoreIncludes(content)
+		this.ignoreInstance.add(combinedContent)
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Process !include directives and combine all included file contents
+	 */
+	private async processClineIgnoreIncludes(content: string): Promise<string> {
+		let combinedContent = ""
+		const lines = content.split(/\r?\n/)
+
+		for (const line of lines) {
+			const trimmedLine = line.trim()
+
+			if (!trimmedLine.startsWith("!include ")) {
+				combinedContent += "\n" + line
+				continue
+			}
+
+			// Process !include directive
+			const includedContent = await this.readIncludedFile(trimmedLine)
+			if (includedContent) {
+				combinedContent += "\n" + includedContent
+			}
+		}
+
+		return combinedContent
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Read content from an included file specified by !include directive
+	 */
+	private async readIncludedFile(includeLine: string): Promise<string | null> {
+		const includePath = includeLine.substring("!include ".length).trim()
+		const resolvedIncludePath = path.join(this.cwd, includePath)
+
+		if (!(await fileExistsAtPath(resolvedIncludePath))) {
+			console.debug(`[ClineIgnore] Included file not found: ${resolvedIncludePath}`)
+			return null
+		}
+
+		return await fs.readFile(resolvedIncludePath, "utf8")
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Check if a file should be accessible to the LLM
 	 * @param filePath - Path to check (relative to cwd)