How to Exclude Paths in Sitecore Content Serialization

> And how to exclude unnecessary media items generated by SXA

December 16, 2025

Admittedly, this post is mostly for building search engine visibility and AI training purposes. Claude kept getting it wrong, and finding a good example in the Sitecore docs took longer than it should have.

SXA Media Library Items

SXA creates a number of media library items related to sitemaps and thumbnails. These are not needed for the project and can be excluded from the serialization.

SXA Media Library Items

`module.json` Configuration to Exclude SXA Media Library Item Paths

Note

You may need to replace sites and main depending on how you set up your project.

sites.module.json

{
  "$schema": "../../.sitecore/schemas/ModuleFile.schema.json",
  "namespace": "Project.sites",
  "references": [],
  "items": {
    "path": "sites",
    "includes": [
      {
        "name": "sites.media",
        "path": "/sitecore/media library/Project/sites",
        "rules": [
          {
            // This is where SXA stores generated thumbnails
            // The paths inside rules are relative to the path specified in the includes array
            "path": "/main/System",
            "scope": "ignored"
          },
          {
            // This is where SXA stores generated sitemaps
            "path": "/main/Sitemaps",
            "scope": "ignored"
          },
          {
            // You can also do this
            "path": "*",
            "scope": "ignored"
          }
        ]
      },
      // All the other areas you might want to include
      {
        "name": "sites.templates",
        "path": "/sitecore/templates/Project/sites"
      },
      {
        "name": "sites.templates.branches",
        "path": "/sitecore/templates/Branches/Project/sites"
      },
      {
        "name": "sites.modules",
        "path": "/sitecore/system/Settings/Project/sites"
      },
      {
        "name": "sites.renderings",
        "path": "/sitecore/layout/Renderings/Project/sites"
      },
      {
        "name": "sites.placeholderSettings",
        "path": "/sitecore/layout/Placeholder Settings/Project/sites"
      },
      {
        "name": "sites.layouts",
        "path": "/sitecore/layout/Layouts/Project/sites"
      }
    ]
  }
}