diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0d70f55..ca228bc 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ alembic/versions/__pycache__/
 # Generated SSL bundle
 combined-ca-bundle.pem
 
+# Dolt local dev clones. Production keeps clones in DOLT_DATA_DIR OUTSIDE the
+# repo tree (deploy is rsync --delete of the tree); this dir is dev-only.
+dolt-data/
+
 # Local research artifacts
 # Backtest reports in reports/ are tracked: they are the evidence behind the
 # production baseline in the README. The snapshot DBs they run against are not.