tools-only File Selection
How ty selects which files to check, include/exclude patterns, gitignore integration, and the default excluded directories. Load when the user asks about excluding files, changing which files ty checks, or why certain files are included or excluded.
Table of Contents
- Default File Discovery
- Explicit Path Arguments
- Include and Exclude Configuration
- Default Excluded Directories
- Glob Pattern Syntax
- Gitignore Integration
- Virtual Environment Files
Default File Discovery
ty runs on all Python files in the working directory (including subdirectories, recursively).
When running from a project (directory containing pyproject.toml), ty runs on all Python files starting from the project root.
Explicit Path Arguments
Provide specific paths as positional arguments to ty check:
ty check example.py
ty check src scripts/benchmark.py
Paths passed as positional arguments are included even if they would otherwise be excluded by exclude filters or ignore files.
--force-exclude enforces exclusions even for explicitly passed paths. Use --no-force-exclude to disable.
Include and Exclude Configuration
# pyproject.toml — check src/ and tests/ but not src/generated/
[tool.ty.src]
include = ["src", "tests"]
exclude = ["src/generated"]
# ty.toml
[src]
include = ["src", "tests"]
exclude = ["src/generated"]
exclude takes precedence over include.
Override a default exclusion using a negated pattern:
[tool.ty.src]
exclude = ["!dist"]
Default Excluded Directories
ty excludes these directories by default:
**/.bzr/
**/.direnv/
**/.eggs/
**/.git/
**/.git-rewrite/
**/.hg/
**/.mypy_cache/
**/.nox/
**/.pants.d/
**/.pytype/
**/.ruff_cache/
**/.svn/
**/.tox/
**/.venv/
**/__pypackages__/
**/_build/
**/buck-out/
**/dist/
**/node_modules/
**/venv/
Glob Pattern Syntax
ty uses reduced portable glob syntax from PEP 639:
| Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|
./src/ |
Matches only a directory named src |
./src |
Matches files and directories named src |
src |
Matches file or directory named src |
* |
Any sequence of characters except / |
** |
Zero or more path components (must be a single path component — **a and b** are invalid) |
? |
Any single character except / |
[abc] |
Any character inside brackets; supports ranges like [0-9] |
!pattern |
Negates a pattern (undoes exclusion) |
All patterns are anchored relative to the project root. src matches only <project_root>/src, not <project_root>/test/src. To match any directory named src, use **/src.
Prefix include patterns like **/src can slow down file discovery.
Escape characters with a backslash.
Gitignore Integration
ty respects .ignore, .gitignore, .git/info/exclude, and global gitignore files by default.
Disable via configuration:
[tool.ty.src]
respect-ignore-files = false
Or via CLI flag:
ty check --no-respect-ignore-files
Virtual Environment Files
In Python 3.13+, venv adds a .gitignore to the virtual environment root, preventing ty from checking venv files.
For older Python versions, exclude virtual environment files manually:
# Add gitignore to the .venv directory
echo "*" > .venv/.gitignore
Or add the virtual environment to your project's .gitignore or .ignore file.