diff --git a/build/.webignore b/build/.webignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7d4503401f25b75dc688ff730bd86ab620145fbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/.webignore
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# cleanup rules for web node modules, .gitignore style
+
+jschardet/src/**
+
+xterm/src/**
+
+xterm-addon-search/src/**
+xterm-addon-search/out/**
+xterm-addon-search/fixtures/**
+
+xterm-addon-unicode11/src/**
+xterm-addon-unicode11/out/**
+
+xterm-addon-webgl/src/**
+xterm-addon-webgl/out/**