ai-instructions: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Spring Boot Gitignore Contract

These rules apply to the root .gitignore of an application repository. Infrastructure-only folders may add extra ignores for volumes and local data.

Required baseline

Every real application repository ships a root .gitignore that ignores at least:

1. Build output: target/ and bin/ (Eclipse's default output folder; distinct from Maven target/)
2. IDE / editor metadata:
   • Eclipse/STS: .apt_generated, .classpath, .factorypath, .project, .settings, .sts4-cache
   • IntelliJ: .idea/, *.iml
   • VS Code / Cursor workspace junk: .vscode/
3. Logs: *.log, *.gz, and logs/ when the application writes logs under that directory
4. Local secrets: .env, .env.* (allow committing a documented .env.example when the project uses one)
5. TLS / key material: *.p12, *.pfx, *.jks, *.key, *.crt, *.pem
6. OS junk: .DS_Store, Thumbs.db
7. Maven release leftovers: release.properties, pom.xml.releaseBackup

Writing rules

• Keep one root .gitignore for the application module; do not scatter duplicate copies unless a nested module is a separate git root.
• Prefer explicit, reviewable patterns over copying an enormous unrelated template.
• If the repository intentionally commits public demo certificates, document that exception in the README and narrow the ignore pattern instead of committing private keys.
• Infrastructure compose projects may additionally ignore local volume data (for example volumes/*) without removing the application baseline.
• k6 HTML report directories are owned by the k6 contract. Add src/test/k6/output/ when that project writes k6 reports.

Forbidden

• Never omit a root .gitignore from a real application repository.
• Never commit target/, bin/, .idea/, .vscode/, or .env with secrets.
• Never commit private keys or keystores (*.key, *.p12, *.pfx, *.jks) for real apps.
• Never use .gitignore to hide failing tests or generated sources that should be built locally.