diff --git a/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.envrc b/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.envrc
index 738a957b..c00a2d5d 100644
--- a/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.envrc	
+++ b/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.envrc	
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# Allow users to bring their own variables
+source_env_if_exists ".env"
+
 # For orion gazelle extension
 # Note: for direnv, $PWD is always the directory of the .envrc
 export ORION_EXTENSIONS_DIR=$PWD/.aspect/gazelle/
diff --git a/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.gitignore b/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.gitignore
index 1583f9b1..32dcddfd 100644
--- a/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.gitignore	
+++ b/{{ .ProjectSnake }}/.gitignore	
@@ -1,13 +1,6 @@
-# User-specific settings file for this repo
+# User-specific settings file for this repo. May contain secrets such as API tokens.
 user.bazelrc
-
-# Don't check in lockfile for now. It is unstable.
-# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/19026
-# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/19621
-# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/19971
-# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/20272
-# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/20369
-MODULE.bazel.lock
+.env
 
 # Symlinks created by Bazel into the output tree
 /bazel-*