VSCode/Q/Is there a setting that hides or shows dot folders and dot files in the explorer panel on the left by default?

• Is there a setting that hides or shows dot folders and dot files in the VSCode/Term/Explorer panel on the left by default?

  • AI Answer

    • Answer/Official from files.exclude - VS Code docs
    • Short answer: files.exclude controls which files and folders are hidden from the Explorer. VS Code does not hide all dot files by default — only a small set of VCS/system entries. Adding **/.* hides all dot-prefixed items.
    • VS Code's files.exclude setting (User or Workspace scope) accepts glob patterns; any matched path is hidden from the Explorer sidebar and from quick-open.
    • Default entries shipped with VS Code:
      • **/.git → true
      • **/.svn → true
      • **/.hg → true
      • **/CVS → true
      • **/.DS_Store → true
      • **/Thumbs.db → true
    • These defaults hide specific VCS/OS metadata but not dot files in general (.env, .claude, .rulesync, etc. all appear in the Explorer by default).
    • To hide all dot files and dot folders, open Settings JSON and add:
      • json

        "files.exclude": {
          "**/.*": true
        }

    • There is no built-in Explorer toggle button for dot-file visibility; it is always controlled through files.exclude in settings.
    • The related setting search.exclude controls which files are omitted from search results — it is independent of Explorer visibility.
    • Since VS Code 1.73, explorer.excludeGitIgnore (true/false) hides all .gitignore-matched entries from the Explorer (see VSCode/Q/Is there any way to toggle the visibility of gitignored items in the sidebar).