Skipped Files on Upload

When you upload a folder directly, Shoal automatically strips out files and folders that don't belong in a deployed container - things like dependencies, build artefacts, caches, and editor config. This keeps uploads fast and your container clean.

Zip uploads too

The same skip rules apply when uploading a zip file. Matched files and folders are removed before your code is sent to the build pipeline.

Skipped folders

Folders are skipped if any part of their path matches a name in this list. For example, src/__pycache__/ is skipped because the segment __pycache__ matches.

General Node.js Python Go / PHP Java / Kotlin C# Ruby Elixir

Folder	Reason
`.git`	Git history - not needed at runtime
`.github`	CI/CD workflow config
`.idea`	JetBrains IDE config
`.vscode`	VS Code editor config
`dist`	Build output - rebuilt by Docker
`build`	Build output - rebuilt by Docker

Folder	Reason
`node_modules`	Dependencies - reinstalled by `npm install` in Docker
`.next`	Next.js build cache
`.nuxt`	Nuxt build cache
`.turbo`	Turborepo cache
`coverage`	Test coverage output
`.nyc_output`	NYC/Istanbul coverage data

Folder	Reason
`.venv`	Virtual environment - recreated in Docker
`venv`	Virtual environment - recreated in Docker
`env`	Virtual environment - recreated in Docker
`__pycache__`	Compiled bytecode cache
`.pytest_cache`	Pytest run cache
`.mypy_cache`	Mypy type-check cache
`.ruff_cache`	Ruff linter cache
`htmlcov`	HTML coverage report output

Folder	Reason
`vendor`	Vendored dependencies - reinstalled in Docker

Folder	Reason
`target`	Maven build output
`.gradle`	Gradle cache
`out`	IntelliJ build output

Folder	Reason
`bin`	Compiled binaries
`obj`	Intermediate build files
`.vs`	Visual Studio local config
`packages`	NuGet package cache
`TestResults`	Test run output

Folder	Reason
`.bundle`	Bundler config and cached gems
`tmp`	Rails temp files
`log`	Rails log files

Folder	Reason
`_build`	Mix build output
`deps`	Mix dependencies - fetched in Docker
`.elixir_ls`	ElixirLS language server data
`cover`	ExCoveralls coverage output

Skipped files

Exact filename matches that are always removed:

File	Reason
`.DS_Store`	macOS folder metadata
`Thumbs.db`	Windows thumbnail cache

Skipped file types

Files are also skipped based on their extension:

Extension	Type
`.log`	Log files
`.tmp`	Temporary files
`.pyc`	Python compiled bytecode
`.pyo`	Python optimised bytecode
`.class`	Java compiled class files
`.war`	Java web archive
`.pdb`	.NET debug symbols
`.tsbuildinfo`	TypeScript incremental build info
`.gem`	Ruby gem packages

Something missing from your deployment?

If a file you expect to be present isn't making it into your container, the skip logic may be the cause. Check this list first - if your file matches a skipped folder name, filename, or extension, rename or restructure it to avoid the match.