diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 82f9275..dcc322a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -160,3 +160,10 @@ cython_debug/
 #  and can be added to the global gitignore or merged into this file.  For a more nuclear
 #  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
 #.idea/
+
+
+# Ignore egg-info directory
+repo_to_text.egg-info/
+
+# Ignore generated repo_structure.txt file
+repo_structure.txt
diff --git a/repo_to_text/main.py b/repo_to_text/main.py
index 559beaa..697123b 100644
--- a/repo_to_text/main.py
+++ b/repo_to_text/main.py
@@ -1,12 +1,37 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
+import pathspec
 
-def get_tree_structure(path='.') -> str:
+def get_tree_structure(path='.', gitignore_spec=None) -> str:
+    # Run the tree command and get its output
     result = subprocess.run(['tree', path], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-    return result.stdout.decode('utf-8')
+    tree_output = result.stdout.decode('utf-8')
+
+    if not gitignore_spec:
+        return tree_output
+
+    # Filter the tree output to exclude files in .gitignore (excluding .gitignore itself)
+    filtered_lines = []
+    for line in tree_output.splitlines():
+        parts = line.split()
+        if not any(gitignore_spec.match_file(os.path.join(path, part)) for part in parts if part != '.gitignore'):
+            filtered_lines.append(line)
+    return '\n'.join(filtered_lines)
+
+def load_gitignore(path='.'):
+    gitignore_path = os.path.join(path, '.gitignore')
+    if os.path.exists(gitignore_path):
+        with open(gitignore_path, 'r') as f:
+            return pathspec.PathSpec.from_lines('gitwildmatch', f)
+    return None
+
+def is_ignored_file(file_path: str) -> bool:
+    # Check if the file is part of .git or should be ignored according to .gitignore rules
+    return '.git' in file_path.split(os.sep) or file_path.endswith('.gitignore')
 
 def save_repo_to_text(path='.') -> None:
-    tree_structure: str = get_tree_structure(path)
+    gitignore_spec = load_gitignore(path)
+    tree_structure: str = get_tree_structure(path, gitignore_spec)
     with open('repo_structure.txt', 'w') as file:
         file.write(tree_structure + '\n')
 
@@ -14,6 +39,11 @@ def save_repo_to_text(path='.') -> None:
             for filename in files:
                 file_path: str = os.path.join(root, filename)
                 relative_path: str = os.path.relpath(file_path, path)
+                
+                # Check if the file should be ignored
+                if is_ignored_file(file_path) or (gitignore_spec and gitignore_spec.match_file(file_path)):
+                    continue
+                
                 file.write(f'\n{relative_path}\n')
                 file.write('```\n')
                 try:
@@ -27,4 +57,4 @@ def main() -> None:
     save_repo_to_text()
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    main()
\ No newline at end of file
+    main()
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1d24baf..7273639 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 setuptools==70.0.0
+pathspec==0.12.1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 515f622..bbb63dd 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
+with open('requirements.txt') as f:
+    required = f.read().splitlines()
+
 setup(
     name='repo-to-text',
     version='0.1',
     packages=find_packages(),
-    install_requires=[],
+    install_requires=required,
     entry_points={
         'console_scripts': [
             'repo-to-text=repo_to_text.main:main',
         ],
     },
-)
+)
\ No newline at end of file