In Gatsby how to exclude a directory on gatsby build?

Question

After reading the docs I've been unable to find an answer if on gatsby build I can exclude an entire directory or if it's excluded by default. For example if I have a directory on the main level:

• /design: might include a style guide, SVG icons to be used, json object of the color palette, etc. etc.
• /docs: directory for component structure for other developers to use, protocols for development, etc. etc.

Gatsby wouldn't be using or pulling anything from these directories and they'd only exist for production references. In my research I've read:

• Add way to ignore file during build: Deals with ignoring individual files that would be pulled from createPages and I do not think would apply here.
• plugin: gatsby-plugin-exclude: appears to be for pages and not necessarily for an entire directory.
• GatsbyJS: Adding Files that Do NOT Get Turned Into Pages in the Pages Folder: deals with pages
• gatsby-source-filesystem allDirectory how to exclude root directory: query exclusion for grahql
• How to unpublish a gatsby page without deleting it?: deals with unpublishing pages and not a directory
• How do I limit what I pull down for my gatsby site from my repo?: Suggests using .gitignore but I'm not wanting to exclude the commit of either directory.
• Request Add ability to exclude files / folders when compiling query: Handles query exclusion for files and folders and not on build

In Gatsby how can a directory be excluded on gatsby build or would it be excluded in the build process?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if it will fit your requirements but one easy thing you can do is to create a project structure like:

/
|--/docs
|--/design
|--/code
   |-- /.cache
   |-- /public
   |-- /src
       |-- /pages
       |-- /templates
       |-- /static
       |-- gatsby-config.js
   |-- gatsby-node.js
   |-- gatsby-ssr.js
   |-- gatsby-browser.js

In that way, your /docs and /design will be outside the scope of Gatsby and when compiling/building your project, the only source code bundled will be the one inside in /code.

A .git file placed in the root (/) will keep tracking all the file changes inside /docs, /design and /code as well.