diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/kube_codegen.sh b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/kube_codegen.sh
index 8ddb5d247c5..e8d4ef0f3f4 100755
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/kube_codegen.sh
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/kube_codegen.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ function kube::codegen::internal::git_find() {
 function kube::codegen::internal::git_grep() {
     # We want to include modified and untracked files because this might be
     # running against code which is not tracked by git yet.
-    git grep --untracked "$@"
+    git grep --untracked "$@" ":(exclude)vendor/"
 }
 
 # Generate tagged helper code: conversions, deepcopy, and defaults