diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index a6254c0..78b0fe0 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -73,8 +73,12 @@
 
 #
 # Exclude files from exporting
+#   only export helper scripts
 #
 
 .gitattributes export-ignore
 .gitignore     export-ignore
-.vscode/*      export-ignore
+.vscode        export-ignore
+.idea          export-ignore
+build          export-ignore
+README.md      export-ignore
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8b59f04..bb0e4f7 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,4 +10,4 @@
 ab-nginx.params
 
 # don't track checksums -- no point
-checksums.sha256*
\ No newline at end of file
+checksums.sha256*