diff --git a/aio/package.json b/aio/package.json
index 5a5d82c823..9daca13364 100644
--- a/aio/package.json
+++ b/aio/package.json
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@
     "hast-util-to-string": "^1.0.0",
     "html": "^1.0.0",
     "http-server": "^0.9.0",
+    "ignore": "^3.3.3",
     "image-size": "^0.5.1",
     "jasmine-core": "~2.5.2",
     "jasmine-spec-reporter": "~3.2.0",
diff --git a/aio/tools/transforms/angular-content-package/index.js b/aio/tools/transforms/angular-content-package/index.js
index e835080c4d..f3e8384a0c 100644
--- a/aio/tools/transforms/angular-content-package/index.js
+++ b/aio/tools/transforms/angular-content-package/index.js
@@ -6,17 +6,29 @@
  * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
  */
 const Package = require('dgeni').Package;
-
+const globby = require('globby');
+const ignore = require('ignore');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('canonical-path');
 const basePackage = require('../angular-base-package');
 const contentPackage = require('../content-package');
 
-const { CONTENTS_PATH } = require('../config');
+const { CONTENTS_PATH, GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH } = require('../config');
 
 module.exports = new Package('angular-content', [basePackage, contentPackage])
 
   // Where do we get the source files?
   .config(function(readFilesProcessor, collectExamples) {
 
+    const gitignoreFile = fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH, '.gitignore'), 'utf8');
+    const gitignore = ignore().add(gitignoreFile);
+
+    const examplePaths = globby.sync('**/*', { cwd: GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH, mark: true, dot: true })
+                            .filter(filePath => filePath !== '.gitignore') // we are not interested in the .gitignore file itself
+                            .filter(filePath => !/\/$/.test(filePath)); // this filter removes the folders, leaving only files
+    const filteredExamplePaths = gitignore.filter(examplePaths) // filter out files that match the .gitignore rules
+                            .map(filePath => path.resolve(GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH, filePath)); // we need the full paths for the filereader
+
     readFilesProcessor.sourceFiles = readFilesProcessor.sourceFiles.concat([
       {
         basePath: CONTENTS_PATH,
@@ -36,26 +48,7 @@ module.exports = new Package('angular-content', [basePackage, contentPackage])
       },
       {
         basePath: CONTENTS_PATH,
-        include: CONTENTS_PATH + '/examples/**/*',
-        exclude: [
-          '**/*plnkr.no-link.html',
-          '**/node_modules/**',
-          // boilerplate files
-          '**/*/src/systemjs-angular-loader.js',
-          '**/*/src/systemjs.config.js',
-          '**/*/src/tsconfig.json',
-          '**/*/bs-config.e2e.json',
-          '**/*/bs-config.json',
-          '**/*/package.json',
-          '**/*/tslint.json',
-          // example files
-          '**/_test-output',
-          '**/protractor-helpers.js',
-          '**/e2e-spec.js',
-          '**/ts/**/*.js',
-          '**/js-es6*/**/*.js',
-          '**/ts-snippets/**/*.js',
-        ],
+        include: filteredExamplePaths,
         fileReader: 'exampleFileReader'
       },
       {
diff --git a/aio/tools/transforms/config.js b/aio/tools/transforms/config.js
index 8f6008a208..59eb3cae47 100644
--- a/aio/tools/transforms/config.js
+++ b/aio/tools/transforms/config.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ const AIO_PATH = resolve(PROJECT_ROOT, 'aio');
 const TEMPLATES_PATH = resolve(AIO_PATH, 'tools/transforms/templates');
 const API_TEMPLATES_PATH = resolve(TEMPLATES_PATH, 'api');
 const CONTENTS_PATH = resolve(AIO_PATH, 'content');
+const GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH = resolve(CONTENTS_PATH, 'examples');
 const SRC_PATH = resolve(AIO_PATH, 'src');
 const OUTPUT_PATH = resolve(SRC_PATH, 'generated');
 const DOCS_OUTPUT_PATH = resolve(OUTPUT_PATH, 'docs');
@@ -18,5 +19,5 @@ function requireFolder(dirname, folderPath) {
     .map(p => require(resolve(absolutePath, p)));
 }
 
-module.exports = { PROJECT_ROOT, AIO_PATH, TEMPLATES_PATH, API_TEMPLATES_PATH, CONTENTS_PATH, SRC_PATH, OUTPUT_PATH, DOCS_OUTPUT_PATH, API_SOURCE_PATH, requireFolder };
+module.exports = { PROJECT_ROOT, AIO_PATH, TEMPLATES_PATH, API_TEMPLATES_PATH, CONTENTS_PATH, GUIDE_EXAMPLES_PATH, SRC_PATH, OUTPUT_PATH, DOCS_OUTPUT_PATH, API_SOURCE_PATH, requireFolder };
 
diff --git a/aio/yarn.lock b/aio/yarn.lock
index fc297958b2..73e1451c07 100644
--- a/aio/yarn.lock
+++ b/aio/yarn.lock
@@ -3366,6 +3366,10 @@ ignore@^3.2.0:
   version "3.3.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/ignore/-/ignore-3.3.0.tgz#3812d22cbe9125f2c2b4915755a1b8abd745a001"
 
+ignore@^3.3.3:
+  version "3.3.3"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/ignore/-/ignore-3.3.3.tgz#432352e57accd87ab3110e82d3fea0e47812156d"
+
 ignorefs@^1.0.0, ignorefs@^1.1.1:
   version "1.2.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/ignorefs/-/ignorefs-1.2.0.tgz#da59fb858976e4a5e43702ccd1f282fdbc9e5756"