pnpm .gitignore template

This template is short because of how the tool works. Instead of copying every package into each project, it keeps one content addressed store on the machine and creates hard links from the project into it. The node_modules directory still exists, but it is a structure of links rather than a full copy, which is why installs are fast and why disk usage does not multiply across projects.

That structure is still not something to commit. The links point into a store path in the home directory, so the tree is meaningless on any other machine, and the nested .pnpm directory inside it encodes the exact resolution graph. The rule is the same as for any other package manager even though the mechanism underneath differs.

.pnpm-store is the store itself, ignored here for the case where it has been configured to live inside the project rather than in the home directory. That configuration exists for continuous integration setups that want the store on a cached volume alongside the checkout.

pnpm-debug.log is written when a command fails, holding the full context of the failed operation. As with every other package manager's crash log, it is useful once and stale immediately. It records the resolved dependency graph at the moment of failure along with the command line and the environment, which is worth reading before you delete it.

The absence worth noting is pnpm-lock.yaml. It is not ignored by anything here, and that is deliberate: the lockfile pins the exact versions and integrity hashes for the whole tree, and it must be committed for the strict, non flat node_modules layout to be reproducible.