diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5616da8e586f115a9bfc1fe07355a7ffdf75f60b..4b7bff11a645f075ce718a0ab4530b0863873676 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+# This file is for zig-specific build artifacts.
+# If you have OS-specific or editor-specific files to ignore,
+# such as *.swp or .DS_Store, put those in your global
+# ~/.gitignore and put this in your ~/.gitconfig:
+#
+# [core]
+#     excludesfile = ~/.gitignore
+#
+# Cheers!
+# -andrewrk
+
 zig-cache/
 build/
 build-*/