diff --git a/.vscode/settings.json b/.vscode/settings.json
index b3079a7c4ee..9f7b39db4d6 100644
--- a/.vscode/settings.json
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@@ -8,13 +8,14 @@
         "src/**/*.so": true
     },
     "search.exclude": {
-        "build/pkgs/sagemath_categories/src": true,
-        "build/pkgs/sagemath_objects/src": true,
-        "build/pkgs/sagelib/src": true,
-        "pkgs/sage-conf_pypi/sage_root/build": true,
-        "pkgs/sagemath-categories/sage": true,
-        "pkgs/sagemath-objects/sage": true,
-        "pkgs/sagemath-standard/sage": true
+        // Exclude symbolic links into SAGE_ROOT/pkgs/
+        "build/pkgs/*/src": true,
+        // Exclude symbolic links into SAGE_ROOT/src/
+        "pkgs/sage-conf_conda/sage_root": true,
+        "pkgs/sage-conf_pypi/sage_root": true,
+        "pkgs/sage-docbuild/sage_docbuild": true,
+        "pkgs/sage-setup/sage_setup": true,
+        "pkgs/sagemath-*/sage": true
     },
     "python.testing.pytestEnabled": true,
     "python.testing.pytestArgs": [
diff --git a/src/doc/en/developer/packaging_sage_library.rst b/src/doc/en/developer/packaging_sage_library.rst
index 3b8ebbadf36..0244d96e5ac 100644
--- a/src/doc/en/developer/packaging_sage_library.rst
+++ b/src/doc/en/developer/packaging_sage_library.rst
@@ -190,9 +190,6 @@ The technique of using symbolic links pointing into ``SAGE_ROOT/src``
 has allowed the modularization effort to keep the ``SAGE_ROOT/src``
 tree monolithic: Modularization has been happening behind the scenes
 and will not change where Sage developers find the source files.
-When adding a new distribution package that uses a symbolic link pointing into
-``SAGE_ROOT/src``, please update ``search.exclude`` in
-``SAGE_ROOT/.vscode/settings.json``.
 
 Some of these files may actually be generated from source files with suffix ``.m4`` by the
 ``SAGE_ROOT/bootstrap`` script via the ``m4`` macro processor.