diff --git a/ghcide/ghcide.cabal b/ghcide/ghcide.cabal
index b217012bec..b3a1fc495f 100644
--- a/ghcide/ghcide.cabal
+++ b/ghcide/ghcide.cabal
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ library
     , optparse-applicative
     , os-string
     , parallel
+    , process
     , prettyprinter                >=1.7
     , prettyprinter-ansi-terminal
     , random
diff --git a/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs b/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
index ad4a36327a..3e4f79131b 100644
--- a/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
+++ b/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import           Control.Concurrent.Extra                 (withNumCapabilities)
 import           Control.Concurrent.MVar                  (MVar, newEmptyMVar,
                                                            putMVar, tryReadMVar)
 import           Control.Concurrent.STM.Stats             (dumpSTMStats)
+import           Control.Exception.Safe                   as Safe
 import           Control.Monad.Extra                      (concatMapM, unless,
                                                            when)
 import           Control.Monad.IO.Class                   (liftIO)
@@ -114,16 +115,17 @@ import qualified Language.LSP.Server                      as LSP
 import           Numeric.Natural                          (Natural)
 import           Options.Applicative                      hiding (action)
 import qualified System.Directory.Extra                   as IO
-import           System.Exit                              (ExitCode (ExitFailure),
+import           System.Exit                              (ExitCode (ExitFailure, ExitSuccess),
                                                            exitWith)
 import           System.FilePath                          (takeExtension,
-                                                           takeFileName)
+                                                           takeFileName, (</>))
 import           System.IO                                (BufferMode (LineBuffering, NoBuffering),
                                                            Handle, hFlush,
                                                            hPutStrLn,
                                                            hSetBuffering,
                                                            hSetEncoding, stderr,
                                                            stdin, stdout, utf8)
+import           System.Process                           (readProcessWithExitCode)
 import           System.Random                            (newStdGen)
 import           System.Time.Extra                        (Seconds, offsetTime,
                                                            showDuration)
@@ -445,16 +447,43 @@ defaultMain recorder Arguments{..} = withHeapStats (cmapWithPrio LogHeapStats re
             registerIdeConfiguration (shakeExtras ide) $ IdeConfiguration mempty (hashed Nothing)
             c ide
 
+-- | List the haskell files given some paths
+--
+-- It will rely on git if possible to filter-out ignored files.
 expandFiles :: [FilePath] -> IO [FilePath]
-expandFiles = concatMapM $ \x -> do
+expandFiles paths = do
+  let haskellFind x =
+        let recurse "." = True
+            recurse y | "." `isPrefixOf` takeFileName y = False -- skip .git etc
+            recurse y = takeFileName y `notElem` ["dist", "dist-newstyle"] -- cabal directories
+        in filter (\y -> takeExtension y `elem` [".hs", ".lhs"]) <$> IO.listFilesInside (return . recurse) x
+      git args = do
+        mResult <- (Just <$> readProcessWithExitCode "git" args "") `Safe.catchAny`const (pure Nothing)
+        pure $
+            case mResult of
+              Just (ExitSuccess, gitStdout, _) -> Just gitStdout
+              _                                -> Nothing
+  mHasGit <- git ["status"]
+  let findFiles =
+        case mHasGit of
+          Just _ -> \path -> do
+            let lookups =
+                  if takeExtension path `elem` [".hs", ".lhs"]
+                      then [path]
+                      else [path </> "*.hs", path </> "*.lhs"]
+                gitLines args = fmap lines <$> git args
+            mTracked <- gitLines ("ls-files":lookups)
+            mUntracked <- gitLines ("ls-files":"-o":lookups)
+            case mTracked <> mUntracked of
+              Nothing    -> haskellFind path
+              Just files -> pure files
+          _ -> haskellFind
+  flip concatMapM paths $ \x -> do
     b <- IO.doesFileExist x
     if b
         then return [x]
         else do
-            let recurse "." = True
-                recurse y | "." `isPrefixOf` takeFileName y = False -- skip .git etc
-                recurse y = takeFileName y `notElem` ["dist", "dist-newstyle"] -- cabal directories
-            files <- filter (\y -> takeExtension y `elem` [".hs", ".lhs"]) <$> IO.listFilesInside (return . recurse) x
+            files <- findFiles x
             when (null files) $
                 fail $ "Couldn't find any .hs/.lhs files inside directory: " ++ x
             return files