Workspace Scope

Bifrost separates the files that belong to a workspace from the files that receive code intelligence. This lets repositories keep generated, vendored, or otherwise machine-authored build inputs available for file inspection without paying to parse and index them.

Exclude Files From Code Intelligence

Add a .bifrostignore file at the workspace root using Gitignore syntax:

vendor/generated/
src/bindings/*.rs
!src/bindings/handwritten.rs

Nested .bifrostignore files apply relative to their own directories, with the same precedence rules as nested .gitignore files. Bifrost applies these patterns whether matching files are tracked by Git or not.

Matching files are excluded from analyzer-backed behavior. They contribute no declarations or references to symbol search, summaries, navigation, usage analysis, structural queries, policies, or diagnostics.

File Tools Still See Excluded Files

.bifrostignore does not remove a path from the workspace’s file inventory. File-content tools and text-level checks can still locate and inspect matching files. This is useful for checks that verify a generated artifact exists or contains a small expected marker.

This differs from .gitignore. Bifrost’s workspace inventory follows Git’s ignore rules for untracked files but deliberately keeps tracked files visible. .bifrostignore adds a separate, analysis-only boundary for tracked or untracked content.

Which Files Are in the Workspace

Bifrost builds the workspace file inventory this way:

• Inside a Git repository, the inventory is every tracked file that exists in the working tree, plus every untracked file that Git does not ignore. Files in initialized submodules are included. Bifrost reads the Git index and working tree; it does not fetch or initialize submodules.
• Outside a Git repository, Bifrost walks the directory tree. It honors .gitignore files, the global Git ignore file, and .git/info/exclude. It does not honor .ignore files.
• Hidden files and directories, such as .github/, are included.
• A .git directory is never walked.
• If the root is inside a Git repository whose ignore rules hide the whole root, Bifrost walks the root directly instead, without the ancestor repository’s ignore files.

Files That Are Never Parsed

Some files stay in the inventory but are never parsed, so they get no code intelligence even when no ignore rule matches them:

• Binary files: a file that contains a NUL byte, unless BIFROST_ADMIT_NUL_BYTES=1 is set.
• Files with overlong structural lines, such as minified JavaScript bundles. The default limit is 16000 bytes. Set BIFROST_MAX_LINE_LENGTH to apply a strict physical-line limit, or to 0 to turn the line limit off. See Environment Variables.

At the default setting, C/C++ analysis can admit generated numeric tables. The parser must prove that the excluded spans contain only numeric initializer lists, including nested lists and signed numbers. Python also admits string and bytes literals, including implicit concatenation, when they contain no interpolation fields (for example, generated protobuf descriptors). The remaining bytes on each physical line must fit the default limit. The complete original source is still analyzed, and any separate syntax recovery remains incomplete evidence.

This exception has finite limits: 1 MiB of source, 65536 syntax-tree nodes, depth 128, 8 MiB of cumulative node spans, and 8192 nodes across all excluded data subtrees. Parsing and admission share a 10-second deadline. An explicit positive BIFROST_MAX_LINE_LENGTH, including 16000, applies the strict physical-line limit instead. Choose this setting before starting Bifrost; changing it between runs invalidates C/C++ and Python facts admitted under the previous setting.

File-level tools can still read files that analysis refuses.

Explicit One-Shot Sources Win

An explicit CLI --sources selection overrides .bifrostignore. For example, this command analyzes the selected generated file even if an ambient ignore pattern matches it:

bifrost --root /path/to/project \
  --tool get_symbol_sources \
  --sources vendor/generated/parser.c \
  --args '{"symbols":["vendor/generated/parser.c"]}'

Explicit selections are useful for one-off inspection. Ordinary whole-workspace CLI, MCP, Python, and Rust-library analyzer construction continues to honor .bifrostignore.

Live Sessions

Long-running MCP sessions watch .bifrostignore. Creating, changing, renaming, or removing a root or nested .bifrostignore file invalidates the analysis scope and starts a full re-analysis. File-level tools use the complete workspace inventory before and after that refresh. When file watching is off (BIFROST_MCP_FILE_WATCHER=off), call the refresh tool after you change a .bifrostignore file.