diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 48883d0d..54da22fc 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 target/
 bin/
 semantic.cache
-tmp/
+tmp/*
+!tmp/.gitkeep
+!tmp/README.md
 venv/
 .DS_Store
 template/src/patterns/catalog-v001.xml
-.idea
-examples/phenotype-ontologies/zeco-odk-nico-curl.yaml
-examples/phenotype-ontologies/zeco-odk-nico.yaml
+.idea
+examples/phenotype-ontologies/zeco-odk-nico-curl.yaml
+examples/phenotype-ontologies/zeco-odk-nico.yaml
diff --git a/template/.gitignore.jinja2 b/template/.gitignore.jinja2
index 24bacdd2..50b87300 100644
--- a/template/.gitignore.jinja2
+++ b/template/.gitignore.jinja2
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ src/ontology/merged-{{ project.id }}-edit.owl
 src/ontology/target/
 src/ontology/tmp/*
 !src/ontology/tmp/README.md
+!src/ontology/tmp/.gitkeep
 
 src/ontology/run.sh.conf
 src/ontology/run.sh.env
diff --git a/template/src/ontology/tmp/.gitkeep b/template/src/ontology/tmp/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b