diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 67607f2..1a9746d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,3 +10,6 @@ __pycache__/
 docs/superpowers
 server/api/*.sqlite*
 server/api/api
+
+# graft's local graph cache — regenerable, not committed (run `graft build`).
+/graft/
diff --git a/.ignore b/.ignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..615e581
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.ignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# graft's cards are gitignored but should stay greppable: ripgrep reads
+# .ignore before .gitignore, so this re-admits the tree to search only.
+!graft/
+graft/.cache/
+graft/.graph/