Unreal Engine .gitignore and .gitattributes for Git LFS

Copy-paste .gitignore and .gitattributes files for Unreal Engine projects, and how to fix a repo that started without Git LFS.

Git wasn't made for big binary files, and an Unreal project is full of them. Without the right setup, every version of every asset stays in your repo forever. Clones get slower every week, and eventually your Git host starts rejecting pushes.

Two small files prevent all of that. Put them next to your .uproject file, ideally in your very first commit:

.gitattributes

.gitignore

MyGame.uproject

.gitignore

Unreal creates a few folders that it can always rebuild. Keep them out of Git, or you'll get a huge repo and conflicts on every pull:

# Generated by Unreal
Binaries/
DerivedDataCache/
Intermediate/
Saved/

# Same folders inside plugins
Plugins/**/Binaries/
Plugins/**/Intermediate/

# Visual Studio and Rider
.vs/
.idea/
*.sln
*.suo
*.VC.db
*.VC.opendb

Because Binaries/ is ignored, anyone who opens the project has to compile it first. If your artists don't have Visual Studio set up, give them editor builds from your build machine, or commit the editor binaries just for them.

.gitattributes

This file tells Git which files to hand over to Git LFS. LFS stores the actual files separately and keeps just a small pointer in your repo, so the repo itself stays small:

Your Git repo

Code, config and tiny pointer files

Git LFS storage

The actual .uasset, .umap, textures and audio

Clones and pulls only download the LFS files your checkout needs.

Here's a good starting point:

# Unreal assets
*.uasset filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text lockable
*.umap   filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text lockable

# Art, audio, video and fonts
*.fbx  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.obj  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.png  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.jpg  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.tga  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.psd  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.exr  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.hdr  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.wav  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.mp3  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.ogg  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.mp4  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.ttf  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
*.otf  filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text

If your project uses other big file types, like .blend files from Blender, add a line for each one.

What does lockable do? Two people can't both edit the same Blueprint or level and merge their changes afterwards, because Unreal assets can't be merged. With lockable, assets are read-only until you run git lfs lock on them, so everyone can see who's working on what.

Setting it up

Install Git LFS

Once on each computer:

git lfs install

Commit both files first

Before you add any assets:

git add .gitignore .gitattributes
git commit -m "Add gitignore and LFS attributes"

Check that assets go to LFS

After you commit some assets:

git lfs ls-files

Every .uasset and .umap should show up in the list. If a file is missing, its extension isn't in your .gitattributes.

Already committed assets without LFS?

Adding .gitattributes now only helps from this point on. The assets already in your history stay as regular Git files. To move them to LFS, you have to rewrite the history:

git lfs migrate import --include="*.uasset,*.umap" --everything
git push --force --all

This changes every commit in the repo. Everyone on the team needs to clone it again afterwards, and open pull requests will need to be recreated. Pick a time with your team before running it.

Watch your LFS quota

Git hosts limit how much LFS storage and download bandwidth you get, and Unreal projects use a lot of both. Every fresh clone downloads the LFS files again, including clones made by build machines. Check your host's current limits before you push a big project.

Building it automatically

With the repo set up, you can have every push turn into a packaged build. Unreal Cloud's GitHub integration does that without a build machine of your own: connect the repo, pick a platform and engine version, and every push gives you a build to download.

Unreal Engine .gitignore and .gitattributes for Git LFS

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