diff --git a/pgdevkit/fetch_missing.py b/pgdevkit/fetch_missing.py
index bde49c3..9d014f3 100644
--- a/pgdevkit/fetch_missing.py
+++ b/pgdevkit/fetch_missing.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 from .diff import DiffKind, compute_diff
 from .introspect import introspect_db
-from .parser import parse_directory
+from .parser import IGNORED_DIR_NAMES, parse_directory
 
 _LAYER_PREFIX_RE = re.compile(r"^\d+_?")
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ def layer_folder_for(scripts_dir: Path, schema: str) -> Path:
     if no existing folder matches."""
     if scripts_dir.is_dir():
         for entry in scripts_dir.iterdir():
-            if not entry.is_dir() or entry.name in ("migrations", "_migration_scripts"):
+            if not entry.is_dir() or entry.name in ("migrations", "_migration_scripts") or entry.name in IGNORED_DIR_NAMES:
                 continue
             if _LAYER_PREFIX_RE.sub("", entry.name).lower() == schema.lower():
                 return entry
diff --git a/pgdevkit/parser.py b/pgdevkit/parser.py
index e4251e4..5357150 100644
--- a/pgdevkit/parser.py
+++ b/pgdevkit/parser.py
@@ -15,6 +15,14 @@
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+# Tooling/scratch dirs that can end up inside a database/ tree (e.g. git
+# worktrees checked out under database/.worktree for isolated test DBs) but
+# never hold real schema content.
+IGNORED_DIR_NAMES = {
+    ".worktree", ".worktrees", ".claude", ".vscode", "node_modules",
+    "__pycache__", ".pytest_cache", ".mypy_cache", ".ruff_cache",
+}
+
 # Regex to extract dollar-quoted body (Postgres-only construct)
 _DOLLAR_BODY = re.compile(r'\$(\w*)\$(.*?)\$\1\$', re.DOTALL | re.IGNORECASE)
 
@@ -35,6 +43,8 @@ def parse_directory(scripts_dir: Path, *, dialect: str | Dialect = "postgres") -
     resolved = resolve_dialect(dialect)
     db_schema = DatabaseSchema()
     for sql_file in sorted(scripts_dir.rglob("*.sql")):
+        if IGNORED_DIR_NAMES.intersection(sql_file.relative_to(scripts_dir).parts[:-1]):
+            continue
         _parse_file(sql_file, db_schema, resolved)
     return db_schema
 
diff --git a/pgdevkit/testdb/schema.py b/pgdevkit/testdb/schema.py
index 45e2a59..581e08b 100644
--- a/pgdevkit/testdb/schema.py
+++ b/pgdevkit/testdb/schema.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 from ..db.complex_types import ComplexHelper
 from ..dialect import Dialect, POSTGRES
+from ..parser import IGNORED_DIR_NAMES
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 logging.getLogger("sqlglot").setLevel(logging.ERROR)
@@ -121,7 +122,8 @@ def _get_sql_deps(sql: str, dialect: Dialect = POSTGRES) -> set[str]:
 def _iter_sql_files(database_dir: Path, dialect: Dialect = POSTGRES):
     """Yield (Path, sql_content) pairs in dependency-safe execution order."""
     files: list[Path] = []
-    for root, _, dbfiles in os.walk(database_dir):
+    for root, dirs, dbfiles in os.walk(database_dir):
+        dirs[:] = [d for d in dirs if d not in IGNORED_DIR_NAMES]
         if "_migration_scripts" in root or "migrations" in root:
             continue
         for file in dbfiles:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f3ab061..781b0fb 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ packages = ["pgdevkit"]
 
 [project]
 name = "pgdevkit"
-version = "0.3.6"
+version = "0.3.8"
 description = "A helper for developing with Postgres"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.14"