Developers struggle to keep personal project config separate
Developers need project-specific settings and environment configuration without mixing personal or machine-specific values into shared files. In the evidence, settings in repositories can be accidentally removed by cleanup commands, while private and shared settings are difficult to separate or override cleanly. Workarounds such as gitignore rules, manual toggles, and symlinks add maintenance and can be cumbersome.
For developers working across shared repositories. Mentioned from Dec 2017 to Mar 2026 on GitHub.
8 different people described this problem in 5 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 4.0/10
- Pain
- 5.8/10
- Frequency
- 7.9/10
- Willingness to pay
- 0.0/10
- Momentum
- 5.0/10
- Who pays
- Professionals
- Competition
- Medium
- Build difficulty
- Medium
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
I tend to use git clean -xdf a lot to get a pristine working directory. This would remove the local settings. My current workaround is to create ${workspaceRoot}/.git/.vscode and symlink it after I remove it by accident
Currently .vscode/settings.json is shared as it is part of .vscode folder. So it cannot be treated as non shareable one
Build brief
See what to build and who will buy it
- 2 product ideas with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 5 places to find your first customers
- 7 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks