I asked because I assumed the clj integration would automatically clear them if I manually set them as excluded, similar to how it manages the directories marked as source, but I'm starting to think that was wrong, and that they will be left alone. If so, I'm good.

Try this: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/creating-and-registering-file-types.html#ignore-files-folders

the find dialog has options to limit where the search happens... I think it's likely that the scope for "project production files" or "project files" would probably do more or less just source paths

@UDCGPTV9R Ah I just marked them as excluded, that is probably better, thanks. I still think the search here is worse and than in other editors. For example, in VS Code there is just a quick toggle to filter out gitignored files. So you don't have to manually sync lists like this with the gitignore.

Yeah, I agree. I can only guess the rationale behind why there are three ways just to get files/directories excluded from search/indexing/inspections is to give developers more flexibility.

You might want to consider voting for <https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-177598> or one of the related requests.

Yes, this is unfortunately an IntelliJ thing I don’t have much (if any) control over. I suspect the scope selection that Bob B suggests is probably the best workaround, but I’m not 100% sure it will work.

I like to click on a directory in the project panel, then hit the find-in-files key chord. I also have that dialogue filtering *.clj*. Oh, and I search by directory, not project. And doing that, I can when energetic use the pulldown on the directory to jump between the main source and a separate examples directory. Searching the whole repo is OK, too, given the clj filter.

@U08JKUHA9 IDEA does not search in ignored files. But often, project ignored files are not the same as listed in .gitignore. If you open .gitignore in the editor then IDE offers to fix the discrepancy.

@U0HJNJWJH didn't notice that, very useful. thanks!