diff --git a/extensions/cli/package.json b/extensions/cli/package.json
index e717177975b..5debd98e555 100644
--- a/extensions/cli/package.json
+++ b/extensions/cli/package.json
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "@sentry/profiling-node": "^9.43.0",
     "fdir": "^6.4.2",
+    "find-up": "^8.0.0",
     "fzf": "^0.5.2",
     "js-yaml": "^4.1.1"
   },
@@ -87,6 +88,7 @@
     "@vitest/ui": "^3.2.4",
     "@workos-inc/node": "^7.45.0",
     "chalk": "^5.4.1",
+    "clipboardy": "^4.0.0",
     "commander": "^14.0.0",
     "conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits": "^9.1.0",
     "core": "file:../../core",
@@ -100,7 +102,6 @@
     "eslint-plugin-import": "^2.32.0",
     "eslint-plugin-unused-imports": "^4.1.4",
     "execa": "^9.6.0",
-    "clipboardy": "^4.0.0",
     "express": "^5.1.0",
     "glob": "^11.0.3",
     "gpt-tokenizer": "^3.0.1",
diff --git a/extensions/cli/src/tools/searchCode.ts b/extensions/cli/src/tools/searchCode.ts
index af9e78756f3..9dd72713b69 100644
--- a/extensions/cli/src/tools/searchCode.ts
+++ b/extensions/cli/src/tools/searchCode.ts
@@ -3,11 +3,26 @@ import * as fs from "fs";
 import * as util from "util";
 
 import { ContinueError, ContinueErrorReason } from "core/util/errors.js";
+import { findUp } from "find-up";
 
 import { Tool } from "./types.js";
 
 const execPromise = util.promisify(child_process.exec);
 
+async function getGitignorePatterns() {
+  const gitIgnorePath = await findUp(".gitignore");
+  if (!gitIgnorePath) return [];
+  const content = fs.readFileSync(gitIgnorePath, "utf-8");
+  const ignorePatterns = [];
+  for (let line of content.trim().split("\n")) {
+    line = line.trim();
+    if (line.startsWith("#") || line === "") continue; // ignore comments and empty line
+    if (line.startsWith("!")) continue; // ignore negated ignores
+    ignorePatterns.push(line);
+  }
+  return ignorePatterns;
+}
+
 // Default maximum number of results to display
 const DEFAULT_MAX_RESULTS = 100;
 const MAX_LINE_LENGTH = 1000;
@@ -70,6 +85,10 @@ export const searchCodeTool: Tool = {
       command += ` -g "${args.file_pattern}"`;
     }
 
+    for (const ignorePattern of await getGitignorePatterns()) {
+      command += ` -g "!${ignorePattern}"`;
+    }
+
     command += ` "${searchPath}"`;
     try {
       const { stdout, stderr } = await execPromise(command);