diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6d7240c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Ignore IntelliJ project files
+.idea/
+*.iml
+
+# Ignore Python cache files after running tests
+*/__pycache__/
diff --git a/push-to-gcs.sh b/push-to-gcs.sh
index 76edf5330..9e4b2f5ca 100755
--- a/push-to-gcs.sh
+++ b/push-to-gcs.sh
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@
 set -euo pipefail
 
 [[ $# -eq 2 ]] || {
-    echo "Usage: ./push-to-gcs.sh <git-ref> <module>"
-    echo "Example: ./push-to-gcs.sh cbde05 kafka"
-    exit 1
+  echo "Usage: ./push-to-gcs.sh <git-ref> <module>"
+  echo "Example: ./push-to-gcs.sh cbde05 kafka"
+  exit 1
 }
 
 set -x
@@ -43,14 +43,14 @@ if [[ ! -d "${MODULE}" ]]; then
 fi
 
 # Verify shell scripts have permission mode 75x.
-for file in ${MODULE}/*.sh; do
-  if [[ "$(stat -c '%a' ${file})" != 75* ]]; then
-    echo "The permission mode of script ${file} is $(stat -c '%a' ${file}), expected: 75x."
+for file in "${MODULE}/"*.sh; do
+  permissions=$(stat -c '%a' "${file}")
+  if [[ ${permissions} != 75* ]]; then
+    echo "The permission mode of script ${file} is ${permissions}, expected: 75x."
     exit 5
   fi
 done
 
-gsutil -m rsync -R "${MODULE}/" "${GCS_FOLDER}"
+gsutil -m rsync -R -x "__pycache__/.*" "${MODULE}/" "${GCS_FOLDER}"
 
 echo "Pushed ${MODULE}/ to ${GCS_FOLDER}."
-