diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a542e27f..6fbb66a3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Status of the `main` branch. Changes prior to the next official version change w
 
 * General:
   - Support environment variable `SERENA_USAGE_REPORTING` (set to `false` to disable usage reporting)
+  - Extended the list of always ignored directories (by language servers) with common cases.
 
 * Language Servers:
   - Add mSL (mIRC Scripting Language) support (custom pygls-based language server; symbols, references, definitions)
diff --git a/src/solidlsp/ls.py b/src/solidlsp/ls.py
index c3362811..9dda6f33 100644
--- a/src/solidlsp/ls.py
+++ b/src/solidlsp/ls.py
@@ -353,13 +353,34 @@ class SolidLanguageServer(ABC):
     DOCUMENT_SYMBOL_CACHE_VERSION = 4
     DOCUMENT_SYMBOL_CACHE_FILENAME = "document_symbols.pkl"
 
+    # Directories that should always be ignored regardless of language:
+    # VCS internals, virtual environments, caches, and serena's own data.
+    _ALWAYS_IGNORED_DIRS = frozenset(
+        {
+            ".git",
+            ".svn",
+            ".hg",
+            ".bzr",  # VCS
+            ".venv",
+            ".env",  # virtual environments
+            ".cache",
+            ".mypy_cache",
+            ".pytest_cache",
+            ".ruff_cache",  # caches
+            ".tox",
+            ".nox",  # test runners
+            ".idea",  # IDE internals
+            ".serena",  # serena's own data
+        }
+    )
+
     # To be overridden and extended by subclasses
     def is_ignored_dirname(self, dirname: str) -> bool:
         """
         A language-specific condition for directories that should always be ignored. For example, venv
         in Python and node_modules in JS/TS should be ignored always.
         """
-        return dirname.startswith(".")
+        return dirname in self._ALWAYS_IGNORED_DIRS
 
     @staticmethod
     def _determine_log_level(line: str) -> int:
diff --git a/test/solidlsp/toml/test_toml_ignored_dirs.py b/test/solidlsp/toml/test_toml_ignored_dirs.py
index e5126942..11d987f9 100644
--- a/test/solidlsp/toml/test_toml_ignored_dirs.py
+++ b/test/solidlsp/toml/test_toml_ignored_dirs.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class TestTomlIgnoredDirectories:
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".cargo"), ".cargo should be ignored"
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname("node_modules"), "node_modules should be ignored"
 
-        # Directories starting with . are ignored by base class
+        # Infrastructure directories ignored by base class
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".git"), ".git should be ignored"
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".venv"), ".venv should be ignored"
 
@@ -49,12 +49,14 @@ class TestTomlIgnoredDirectories:
 
     def test_various_cache_directories(self, language_server: SolidLanguageServer) -> None:
         """Test various cache and temporary directories are ignored."""
-        # Directories starting with . are ignored by base class
+        # Cache directories ignored by base class
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".cache"), ".cache should be ignored"
 
-        # IDE directories (start with .)
+        # IDE internals
         assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".idea"), ".idea should be ignored"
-        assert language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".vscode"), ".vscode should be ignored"
+
+        # .vscode is intentionally NOT ignored — it contains user-facing config
+        assert not language_server.is_ignored_dirname(".vscode"), ".vscode should not be ignored"
 
         # Note: __pycache__ is NOT ignored by TOML server (only Python servers ignore it)
         assert not language_server.is_ignored_dirname("__pycache__"), "__pycache__ is not TOML-specific"