diff --git a/backend/src/hatchling/builders/sdist.py b/backend/src/hatchling/builders/sdist.py
index ec656f344..d8ae66f43 100644
--- a/backend/src/hatchling/builders/sdist.py
+++ b/backend/src/hatchling/builders/sdist.py
@@ -228,6 +228,7 @@ def construct_setup_py_file(self, packages):
         return contents
 
     def get_default_build_data(self):
+        # Check for inclusion first to avoid redundant pattern matching
         build_data = {'artifacts': []}
         if not self.config.include_path('pyproject.toml'):
             build_data['artifacts'].append('/pyproject.toml')
@@ -242,7 +243,12 @@ def get_default_build_data(self):
                 if not self.config.include_path(license_file):
                     build_data['artifacts'].append('/{}'.format(license_file))
 
-        build_data['artifacts'].append('/{}'.format(DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT))
+        if not self.config.include_path(DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT):
+            build_data['artifacts'].append('/{}'.format(DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT))
+
+        if not self.config.include_path('.gitignore'):
+            build_data['artifacts'].append('/.gitignore')
+
         return build_data
 
     @property
diff --git a/docs/meta/history.md b/docs/meta/history.md
index e99a6b765..d7e5ccbd2 100644
--- a/docs/meta/history.md
+++ b/docs/meta/history.md
@@ -114,6 +114,10 @@ This is the first release candidate for Hatch v1, a complete rewrite.
 
 ### Unreleased
 
+***Added:***
+
+- Always include any root `.gitignore` file for source distributions so recursive builds are guaranteed to be identical
+
 ***Fixed:***
 
 - Fix metadata handling of non-ASCII characters in README files for source distributions on Python 2
diff --git a/tests/backend/builders/test_sdist.py b/tests/backend/builders/test_sdist.py
index 9d88ae04d..93137fed8 100644
--- a/tests/backend/builders/test_sdist.py
+++ b/tests/backend/builders/test_sdist.py
@@ -759,7 +759,9 @@ def initialize(self, version, build_data):
                 'hatch': {
                     'version': {'path': 'my_app/__about__.py'},
                     'build': {
-                        'targets': {'sdist': {'versions': ['standard'], 'exclude': [DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT]}},
+                        'targets': {
+                            'sdist': {'versions': ['standard'], 'exclude': [DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT, '.gitignore']}
+                        },
                         'artifacts': ['my_app/lib.so'],
                         'hooks': {'custom': {'path': DEFAULT_BUILD_SCRIPT}},
                     },