diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1a8399ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Ignore IDE files for Pycharm or other JetBrain IDES
+.idea
+# Ignore checkin of Python cache directories of compiled code
+__pycache__/
diff --git a/.idea/.gitignore b/.idea/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 26d33521..00000000
--- a/.idea/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-# Default ignored files
-/shelf/
-/workspace.xml
diff --git a/.idea/SearchAssist-Toolkit.iml b/.idea/SearchAssist-Toolkit.iml
deleted file mode 100644
index 625cc374..00000000
--- a/.idea/SearchAssist-Toolkit.iml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<module type="PYTHON_MODULE" version="4">
-  <component name="NewModuleRootManager">
-    <content url="file://$MODULE_DIR$">
-      <sourceFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/Evaluation/RAG_Evaluator/src" isTestSource="false" />
-    </content>
-    <orderEntry type="jdk" jdkName="Python 3.9 (RAG_Evaluator)" jdkType="Python SDK" />
-    <orderEntry type="sourceFolder" forTests="false" />
-  </component>
-</module>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/inspectionProfiles/Project_Default.xml b/.idea/inspectionProfiles/Project_Default.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index aba48ded..00000000
--- a/.idea/inspectionProfiles/Project_Default.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-<component name="InspectionProjectProfileManager">
-  <profile version="1.0">
-    <option name="myName" value="Project Default" />
-    <inspection_tool class="PyStubPackagesAdvertiser" enabled="true" level="WARNING" enabled_by_default="true">
-      <option name="ignoredPackages">
-        <list>
-          <option value="pyspark-stubs==3.0.0.post3" />
-        </list>
-      </option>
-    </inspection_tool>
-  </profile>
-</component>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/inspectionProfiles/profiles_settings.xml b/.idea/inspectionProfiles/profiles_settings.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 105ce2da..00000000
--- a/.idea/inspectionProfiles/profiles_settings.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-<component name="InspectionProjectProfileManager">
-  <settings>
-    <option name="USE_PROJECT_PROFILE" value="false" />
-    <version value="1.0" />
-  </settings>
-</component>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/misc.xml b/.idea/misc.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index aa615dcf..00000000
--- a/.idea/misc.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project version="4">
-  <component name="ProjectRootManager" version="2" project-jdk-name="Python 3.9 (RAG_Evaluator)" project-jdk-type="Python SDK" />
-  <component name="PyCharmProfessionalAdvertiser">
-    <option name="shown" value="true" />
-  </component>
-</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/modules.xml b/.idea/modules.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 6c848fc6..00000000
--- a/.idea/modules.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project version="4">
-  <component name="ProjectModuleManager">
-    <modules>
-      <module fileurl="file://$PROJECT_DIR$/.idea/SearchAssist-Toolkit.iml" filepath="$PROJECT_DIR$/.idea/SearchAssist-Toolkit.iml" />
-    </modules>
-  </component>
-</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/vcs.xml b/.idea/vcs.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 94a25f7f..00000000
--- a/.idea/vcs.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project version="4">
-  <component name="VcsDirectoryMappings">
-    <mapping directory="$PROJECT_DIR$" vcs="Git" />
-  </component>
-</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/advSearch.cpython-38.pyc b/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/advSearch.cpython-38.pyc
deleted file mode 100644
index ce1218b6..00000000
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diff --git a/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/configManager.cpython-38.pyc b/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/configManager.cpython-38.pyc
deleted file mode 100644
index acb182a5..00000000
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diff --git a/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/ragsEval.cpython-38.pyc b/Evaluation/RAGAS Evaluation/__pycache__/ragsEval.cpython-38.pyc
deleted file mode 100644
index 3eec52ae..00000000
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diff --git a/Utilities/SnippetExtraction/__pycache__/SnippetExtractionUtil.cpython-39.pyc b/Utilities/SnippetExtraction/__pycache__/SnippetExtractionUtil.cpython-39.pyc
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index e712e496..00000000
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