First Steps¶

Welcome to gi! This guide will walk you through your first steps with the .gitignore combiner.

🎯 What is gi?¶

gi is a command-line tool that helps you create comprehensive .gitignore files by combining official templates from github/gitignore. Instead of manually copying and pasting ignore rules, gi does it automatically and intelligently.

🚀 Why Use gi?¶

Before gi¶

# Manual process - time consuming and error-prone
# 1. Go to github.com/github/gitignore
# 2. Find Python template
# 3. Copy content
# 4. Find Node.js template  
# 5. Copy content
# 6. Manually combine and deduplicate
# 7. Save as .gitignore

With gi¶

# One command - fast and reliable
gi main python node

📋 Prerequisites¶

Before we start, make sure you have:

✅ gi installed (see Installation Guide)
✅ Basic familiarity with command line
✅ A project directory to work with

🏁 Step 1: Verify Installation¶

First, let's make sure gi is working:

gi --version

You should see something like:

gi version 0.1.0

🔍 Step 2: Explore Available Templates¶

Let's see what templates are available:

# List all templates
gi list

This shows you all 200+ available templates. You'll see output like:

Available .gitignore Templates
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Template Name         ┃ Category           ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ Python               │ Language/Framework │
│ Node                 │ Language/Framework │
│ React                │ Language/Framework │
│ Django               │ Language/Framework │
│ Flask                │ Language/Framework │
│ ...                  │ ...                │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

🔎 Step 3: Search for Templates¶

Let's search for templates related to Python:

gi search python

This will show templates that match "python":

Search Results for "python"
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Template Name         ┃ Category           ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ Python               │ Language/Framework │
│ Django               │ Language/Framework │
│ Flask                │ Language/Framework │
│ Jupyter              │ Language/Framework │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

👀 Step 4: Preview a Template¶

Before using a template, let's see what's in it:

gi show Python

This shows the raw content of the Python template:

# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class

# C extensions
*.so

# Distribution / packaging
.Python
build/
develop-eggs/
dist/
downloads/
eggs/
.eggs/
lib/
lib64/
parts/
sdist/
var/
wheels/
...

🎯 Step 5: Create Your First .gitignore¶

Now let's create a .gitignore file for a Python project:

# Create a Python .gitignore
gi main python

This creates a .gitignore file in your current directory. Let's verify it worked:

# Check if file was created
ls -la .gitignore

# View the content
head -20 .gitignore

🔄 Step 6: Combine Multiple Templates¶

Let's create a more comprehensive .gitignore for a full-stack project:

# Python backend + Node.js frontend
gi main python node

This combines both Python and Node.js ignore rules into one file.

🎨 Step 7: Use Convenient Aliases¶

gi includes aliases to make common combinations easier:

# Use aliases instead of full names
gi main python node vscode

This is equivalent to:

gi main Python Node "Global/VisualStudioCode"

⚙️ Step 8: Customize Output¶

Let's try some advanced options:

# Save to a specific file
gi main python rust -o my-project/.gitignore

# Append to existing file
gi main python -a existing/.gitignore

# Force overwrite without prompting
gi main python node --force

🔍 Step 9: Get Diagnostic Information¶

Check the status of your gi installation:

gi doctor

This shows information about: - Cache status - Available templates - Configuration - Network connectivity

🎯 Step 10: Real-World Example¶

Let's create a .gitignore for a real project. Imagine you're building a web application with:

Python backend (Django)
Node.js frontend (React)
VS Code for development
Docker for containerization

# Create comprehensive .gitignore
gi main python django node react vscode docker

This creates a .gitignore file that covers all these technologies!

🎉 Congratulations!¶

You've successfully:

✅ Installed and verified gi
✅ Explored available templates
✅ Created your first .gitignore file
✅ Combined multiple templates
✅ Used aliases and advanced options
✅ Created a real-world example

🚀 What's Next?¶

Now that you know the basics, explore more:

User Guide - Complete command reference
Tutorials - Detailed guides
Advanced Usage - Power user features

🆘 Common Issues¶

Template Not Found¶

# If a template isn't found, search for it
gi search <partial-name>

# Or list all to see exact names
gi list

Permission Errors¶

# Make sure you have write permissions in the directory
ls -la .  # Check permissions

Network Issues¶

# gi works offline with cached templates
gi doctor  # Check cache status

💡 Pro Tips¶

Use aliases: They're shorter and easier to remember
Preview templates: Use gi show <template> before combining
Check results: Always review the generated .gitignore
Keep it simple: Start with basic templates, add complexity as needed

Ready for more? Check out our Complete Command Reference!