diff --git a/src/services/checkpoints/ShadowCheckpointService.ts b/src/services/checkpoints/ShadowCheckpointService.ts
index 03e019ed60..1f4b22e33d 100644
--- a/src/services/checkpoints/ShadowCheckpointService.ts
+++ b/src/services/checkpoints/ShadowCheckpointService.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import { fileExistsAtPath } from "../../utils/fs"
 import { executeRipgrep } from "../../services/search/file-search"
 
 import { CheckpointDiff, CheckpointResult, CheckpointEventMap } from "./types"
-import { getExcludePatterns } from "./excludes"
+import { getExcludePatterns, getExcludePatternsWithStats } from "./excludes"
 
 export abstract class ShadowCheckpointService extends EventEmitter {
 	public readonly taskId: string
@@ -139,8 +139,15 @@ export abstract class ShadowCheckpointService extends EventEmitter {
 	// .gitignore.
 	protected async writeExcludeFile() {
 		await fs.mkdir(path.join(this.dotGitDir, "info"), { recursive: true })
-		const patterns = await getExcludePatterns(this.workspaceDir)
+		const { patterns, stats } = await getExcludePatternsWithStats(this.workspaceDir)
 		await fs.writeFile(path.join(this.dotGitDir, "info", "exclude"), patterns.join("\n"))
+
+		if (stats?.largeFilesExcluded && stats.largeFilesExcluded > 0) {
+			const mb = Math.round(stats.thresholdBytes / (1024 * 1024))
+			this.log(
+				`[${this.constructor.name}#writeExcludeFile] auto-excluding ${stats.largeFilesExcluded} large files (>= ${mb}MB) from checkpoints. Sample: ${stats.sample.join(", ")}`,
+			)
+		}
 	}
 
 	private async stageAll(git: SimpleGit) {
diff --git a/src/services/checkpoints/excludes.ts b/src/services/checkpoints/excludes.ts
index 382e400f18..240b745bd6 100644
--- a/src/services/checkpoints/excludes.ts
+++ b/src/services/checkpoints/excludes.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,51 @@
 import fs from "fs/promises"
-import { join } from "path"
+import * as path from "path"
 
 import { fileExistsAtPath } from "../../utils/fs"
+import { executeRipgrepForFiles } from "../search/file-search"
+
+const DEFAULT_LARGE_FILE_THRESHOLD_BYTES = 10 * 1024 * 1024 // 10 MB
+
+// Common code/text extensions that should not be auto-excluded by size
+const CODE_EXT_ALLOWLIST: Set<string> = new Set<string>([
+	".ts",
+	".tsx",
+	".js",
+	".jsx",
+	".json",
+	".md",
+	".txt",
+	".py",
+	".java",
+	".cs",
+	".cpp",
+	".c",
+	".h",
+	".hpp",
+	".go",
+	".rb",
+	".rs",
+	".kt",
+	".swift",
+	".m",
+	".mm",
+	".php",
+	".html",
+	".css",
+	".scss",
+	".less",
+	".xml",
+	".yml",
+	".yaml",
+	".toml",
+	".ini",
+	".gradle",
+	".csproj",
+	".sln",
+	".vue",
+	".svelte",
+	".astro",
+])
 
 const getBuildArtifactPatterns = () => [
 	".gradle/",
@@ -185,7 +229,7 @@ const getLogFilePatterns = () => [
 
 const getLfsPatterns = async (workspacePath: string) => {
 	try {
-		const attributesPath = join(workspacePath, ".gitattributes")
+		const attributesPath = path.join(workspacePath, ".gitattributes")
 
 		if (await fileExistsAtPath(attributesPath)) {
 			return (await fs.readFile(attributesPath, "utf8"))
@@ -198,15 +242,105 @@ const getLfsPatterns = async (workspacePath: string) => {
 	return []
 }
 
-export const getExcludePatterns = async (workspacePath: string) => [
-	".git/",
-	...getBuildArtifactPatterns(),
-	...getMediaFilePatterns(),
-	...getCacheFilePatterns(),
-	...getConfigFilePatterns(),
-	...getLargeDataFilePatterns(),
-	...getDatabaseFilePatterns(),
-	...getGeospatialPatterns(),
-	...getLogFilePatterns(),
-	...(await getLfsPatterns(workspacePath)),
+/**
+ * Additional patterns for common game engines and large asset-heavy projects (Unity, Unreal, etc.)
+ * This helps avoid checkpointing huge binary assets by default.
+ */
+const getGameEnginePatterns = () => [
+	// Unity
+	"Library/",
+	"Temp/",
+	"Build/",
+	"Builds/",
+	"Logs/",
+	"UserSettings/",
+	"*.unity",
+	"*.prefab",
+	"*.asset",
+	"*.fbx",
+	"*.blend",
+	"*.obj",
+	"*.unitypackage",
+	// Unreal
+	"*.uasset",
+	"*.umap",
 ]
+
+/**
+ * Scan the workspace for very large non-code files and exclude them automatically.
+ * Uses ripgrep for fast file listing, then fs.stat for sizes.
+ */
+async function getLargeFileAutoExcludePatterns(
+	workspacePath: string,
+	thresholdBytes: number = DEFAULT_LARGE_FILE_THRESHOLD_BYTES,
+): Promise<string[]> {
+	try {
+		const items = await executeRipgrepForFiles(workspacePath, 50000)
+		const large: string[] = []
+
+		for (const item of items) {
+			if (item.type !== "file") continue
+
+			const rel = item.path
+			const ext = path.extname(rel).toLowerCase()
+
+			// Keep code/text files even if large
+			if (CODE_EXT_ALLOWLIST.has(ext)) continue
+
+			try {
+				const stat = await fs.stat(path.join(workspacePath, rel))
+				if (stat.size >= thresholdBytes) {
+					// Normalize to forward slashes for git exclude
+					large.push(rel.replace(/\\/g, "/"))
+				}
+			} catch {
+				// Ignore stat errors for individual files
+			}
+		}
+
+		return Array.from(new Set(large))
+	} catch {
+		return []
+	}
+}
+
+/**
+ * Returns exclude patterns and statistics used for logging/UX decisions.
+ */
+export async function getExcludePatternsWithStats(workspacePath: string): Promise<{
+	patterns: string[]
+	stats: { largeFilesExcluded: number; thresholdBytes: number; sample: string[] }
+}> {
+	const base = [
+		".git/",
+		...getBuildArtifactPatterns(),
+		...getMediaFilePatterns(),
+		...getCacheFilePatterns(),
+		...getConfigFilePatterns(),
+		...getLargeDataFilePatterns(),
+		...getDatabaseFilePatterns(),
+		...getGeospatialPatterns(),
+		...getLogFilePatterns(),
+		...getGameEnginePatterns(),
+		...(await getLfsPatterns(workspacePath)),
+	]
+
+	const dynamicLarge = await getLargeFileAutoExcludePatterns(workspacePath)
+
+	const patterns = Array.from(new Set([...base, ...dynamicLarge]))
+
+	return {
+		patterns,
+		stats: {
+			largeFilesExcluded: dynamicLarge.length,
+			thresholdBytes: DEFAULT_LARGE_FILE_THRESHOLD_BYTES,
+			sample: dynamicLarge.slice(0, 10),
+		},
+	}
+}
+
+/**
+ * Backwards-compatible helper used by existing callers/tests.
+ */
+export const getExcludePatterns = async (workspacePath: string) =>
+	(await getExcludePatternsWithStats(workspacePath)).patterns