diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 87927dfea..2434f4d3c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@ __pycache__
 /._view
 /view
 /.spack-env
+/.venv
diff --git a/conf.py b/conf.py
index f7c6b7741..3bd96297f 100644
--- a/conf.py
+++ b/conf.py
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ def setup(sphinx):
 
 # List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
 # directories to ignore when looking for source files.
-exclude_patterns = ["_build", "_spack_root", "view", "._view"]
+exclude_patterns = ["_build", "_spack_root", "view", "._view", "common/*", ".venv"]
 
 # The reST default role (used for this markup: `text`) to use for all documents.
 # default_role = None