diff --git a/cmd/repo-health-checker/main.go b/cmd/repo-health-checker/main.go
index bba0991..5396fd4 100644
--- a/cmd/repo-health-checker/main.go
+++ b/cmd/repo-health-checker/main.go
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ func main() {
 	showVersion := flag.Bool("version", false, "print current version")
 	rootDir := flag.String("root", ".", "root dir for forbidden files check")
 	repoSize := flag.Float64("repoSize", 2, "maximum size of the repo in MiB")
+	// TODO: remove gitWhitelist, it is only for backward compatibility now
 	localList := flag.String("localList", "", "local file list for non-ascii file check")
 	checkFileNameList := flag.String("checkFileNameList", "", "comma-separated list of files to check")
 	checkFileSumList := flag.String("checkFileSumList", "", "comma-separated list of expected checksums")
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@ func main() {
 	if err != nil {
 		fmt.Printf("### Forbidden File Check Failed:\n%s\n", err.Error())
 	}
-	err = healthcheck.NonAsciiFiles(*rootDir, *localList)
+	err = healthcheck.NonAsciiFiles(*rootDir)
 	if err != nil {
 		fmt.Printf("### Non-ASCII Characters File Check Failed:\n%s\n", err.Error())
 	}
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 6c81d72..62e166a 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ go 1.23.1
 require (
 	github.com/criyle/go-judge v1.8.5
 	github.com/denormal/go-gitignore v0.0.0-20180930084346-ae8ad1d07817
+	github.com/go-git/go-billy/v5 v5.5.0
 	github.com/go-git/go-git/v5 v5.12.0
 	github.com/jinzhu/copier v0.4.0
 	github.com/koding/multiconfig v0.0.0-20171124222453-69c27309b2d7
@@ -27,7 +28,6 @@ require (
 	github.com/fatih/camelcase v1.0.0 // indirect
 	github.com/fatih/structs v1.1.0 // indirect
 	github.com/go-git/gcfg v1.5.1-0.20230307220236-3a3c6141e376 // indirect
-	github.com/go-git/go-billy/v5 v5.5.0 // indirect
 	github.com/golang/groupcache v0.0.0-20210331224755-41bb18bfe9da // indirect
 	github.com/jbenet/go-context v0.0.0-20150711004518-d14ea06fba99 // indirect
 	github.com/kevinburke/ssh_config v1.2.0 // indirect
diff --git a/pkg/healthcheck/nonascii.go b/pkg/healthcheck/nonascii.go
index 0204c3c..07bc436 100644
--- a/pkg/healthcheck/nonascii.go
+++ b/pkg/healthcheck/nonascii.go
@@ -8,38 +8,33 @@ import (
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"unicode"
+
+	"github.com/go-git/go-billy/v5/memfs"
+	"github.com/go-git/go-git/v5/plumbing/format/gitattributes"
 )
 
 // getNonAscii retrieves a list of files in the specified root directory that contain non-ASCII characters.
 // It searches for non-ASCII characters in each file's content and returns a list of paths to files containing non-ASCII characters.
-func getNonAscii(root string, localList string) ([]string, error) {
+func getNonAscii(root string) ([]string, error) {
 	var nonAscii []string
+	fs := memfs.New()
+	rootPath := []string{"./"}
+	var emptyStr []string
 
-	var dirs []string
-
-	if localList != "" {
-		file, err := os.Open(localList)
-		if err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to open file %s: %v\n", localList, err)
-		}
-		defer file.Close()
-
-		scanner := bufio.NewScanner(file)
-		for scanner.Scan() {
-			dirs = append(dirs, scanner.Text())
-		}
-		if err := scanner.Err(); err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("Error reading file %s: %v\n", localList, err)
-		}
+	attribute, err := gitattributes.ReadPatterns(fs, rootPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	err := filepath.Walk(root, func(path string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
+	matcher := gitattributes.NewMatcher(attribute)
+
+	err = filepath.Walk(root, func(path string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 
 		if info.IsDir() {
-			if info.Name() == ".git" || info.Name() == ".gitea" || info.Name() == "ci" || (localList != "" && inString(info.Name(), dirs)) {
+			if info.Name() == ".git" || info.Name() == ".gitea" {
 				return filepath.SkipDir
 			} else {
 				return nil
@@ -50,6 +45,10 @@ func getNonAscii(root string, localList string) ([]string, error) {
 			return nil
 		}
 
+		if _, ret := matcher.Match(rootPath, append(emptyStr, info.Name())); ret {
+			return nil
+		}
+
 		file, err := os.Open(path)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -79,8 +78,8 @@ func getNonAscii(root string, localList string) ([]string, error) {
 
 // nonAsciiFiles checks for non-ASCII characters in files within the specified root directory.
 // It prints a message with the paths to files containing non-ASCII characters, if any.
-func NonAsciiFiles(root string, localList string) error {
-	nonAscii, err := getNonAscii(root, localList)
+func NonAsciiFiles(root string) error {
+	nonAscii, err := getNonAscii(root)
 	if err != nil {
 		slog.Error("getting non-ascii", "err", err)
 		return fmt.Errorf("error getting non-ascii: %w", err)