diff --git a/src/ich/.gitignore b/src/ich/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5a9391e2d4046adfeefba3f541e7dabcb0a983e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ich/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Ignore Python bytecode files
+*.pyc
+
+# Ignore __pycache__ directories
+__pycache__/
diff --git a/src/ich/.gitkeep b/src/ich/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000