Remove file from the repository but keep it locally

git rm --cached -r somedir

Will stage the deletion of the directory, but doesn't touch anything on disk. This works also for a file, like:

git rm --cached somefile.ext

Afterwards you may want to add somedir/ or somefile.ext to your .gitignore file so that git doesn't try to add it back.

I would just:

• Move the folder out of your working tree
• git rm the folder, commit the change
• Add to .gitignore (or .git/info/excludes), commit the change
• Move the folder back