diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58fd493
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# we're using this directory for testing, so we shouldn't copy it
+formulas/
+
+# we don't want to copy a real sfm.yaml file
+sfm.yaml