diff --git a/.hgignore b/.hgignore
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.hgignore
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+\.installed.cfg
+\.coverage
+\.keyboardcomposer\.savedlevels
+\.light9-window-geometry
+_test_show
+bin/ipython
+bin/python
+dmx_usb_module/.gitignore
+dmx_usb_module/Module.symvers
+dmx_usb_module/build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
+dmx_usb_module/dmx.c
+dmx_usb_module/dmx_usb.ko
+dmx_usb_module/dmx_usb_test
+dmx_usb_module/modules.order
+env
+env_pi
+lib/python2.7
+# keep bower.json nonboring
+light9/web/lib/[acdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyzQN]
+show/dance20../music
+show/dance201./sessions/?
+show/dance2011
+show/dance2012
+show/dance2013/build
+show/dance2014/build/?
+show/dance2014/music
+show/.*/spectrogram
+show/.*/doc
+stagesim/three.js-master
+tkdnd
+node_modules
+
+lib/FlameGraph/
+lib/pyflame/
+show/dance..../capture
+show/dance2017/networking.n3
+show/dance2019/model/
+show/dance2019/video/
+timelapse/
+__pycache__
+rgbled/build-nano328/