Keep a Git-Ignored Temp Folder for Ephemeral Agent Notes
Coding agents often need to persist information across steps — plans, TODO lists, research summaries, testing logs. Asking the agent to save these to files makes its work more transparent and gives you artifacts to review and refine. But these files are ephemeral. They serve their purpose during a task and have no place in version control.
Create a dedicated folder for throwaway agent files and exclude it from git. A simple convention is to add a tmp/ directory at the repository root:
Create a tmp/ directory at the repository top-level and add it to .gitignoreWith this in place, you can direct the agent to write working documents there:
Create a plan for testing the Foo functionality of the Bar component and save it to tmp/ so I can review it.The agent produces something like tmp/foo-testing-plan.md. You review it, iterate on it, then ask the agent to implement. When you’re ready to commit, the plan stays out of your repository tree. Delete it when it’s no longer useful, or let it accumulate harmlessly until you clean up.
What belongs in tmp/
Implementation plans — step-by-step approaches the agent will follow
TODO lists — tracking progress across multi-step tasks
Research notes — API documentation summaries, library comparisons
Testing logs — output from test runs, debugging sessions
Drafts — intermediate versions of code or documentation
The pattern separates the agent’s “scratchpad” from the repository’s permanent record. You get visibility into the agent’s reasoning without polluting your commit history.
Brilliant take on keeping agent workflows clean. The tmp/ approach captures something critical about how LLMs work best when they can externalize theirreasoning into persistent artifacts. I've found that having these intermediate plans visible actually changes how I prompt since I can reference specific sections rather than rebuilding context each time. One thing worth mentioning is that tmp/ also becomes useful for debugging when agents go off track.