diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2d5e0e2c4a9..88675afaea9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -111,6 +111,8 @@ kubernetes.tar.gz
 # TODO(thockin): uncomment this when we stop committing the generated files.
 #zz_generated.*
 zz_generated.openapi.go
+# TODO(roycaihw): remove this when we stop committing the generated definition
+!staging/src/k8s.io/apiextensions-apiserver/pkg/generated/openapi/zz_generated.openapi.go
 zz_generated_*_test.go
 
 # make-related metadata
diff --git a/hack/make-rules/clean.sh b/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
index 2dc229ebeee..e75b9aea519 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/util.sh"
 CLEAN_PATTERNS=(
   "_tmp"
   "doc_tmp"
-  ".*/zz_generated.openapi.go"
+  "((?!staging\/src\/k8s\.io\/apiextensions-apiserver\/pkg\/generated\/openapi).)*/zz_generated.openapi.go"
   "test/e2e/generated/bindata.go"
 )