diff --git a/scripts/init.js b/scripts/init.js
index fce0a8c241c..be5d58b158f 100644
--- a/scripts/init.js
+++ b/scripts/init.js
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ module.exports = function(hostPath, appName, verbose) {
   // Copy the files for the user
   fs.copySync(path.join(selfPath, 'template'), hostPath);
 
+  // Rename gitignore after the fact to prevent npm from renaming it to .npmignore
+  // See: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1862
+  fs.move(path.join(hostPath, 'gitignore'), path.join(hostPath, '.gitignore'), []);
+
   // Run another npm install for react and react-dom
   console.log('Installing react and react-dom from npm...');
   // TODO: having to do two npm installs is bad, can we avoid it?
diff --git a/template/gitignore b/template/gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f709354aaaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/template/gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# See http://help.github.com/ignore-files/ for more about ignoring files.
+
+# dependencies
+node_modules
+
+# misc
+npm-debug.log