diff --git a/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/lib/WalkAST.cpp b/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/lib/WalkAST.cpp
--- a/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/lib/WalkAST.cpp
+++ b/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/lib/WalkAST.cpp
@@ -304,6 +304,16 @@
     }
     return RecursiveASTVisitor::TraverseTemplateArgumentLoc(TL);
   }
+
+  bool VisitCXXStdInitializerListExpr(CXXStdInitializerListExpr *E) {
+    // Reliance on initializer_lists requires std::initializer_list to be
+    // visible per standard. So report a reference to it, otherwise include of
+    // `<initializer_list>` might not receive any use.
+    report(E->getExprLoc(),
+           const_cast<CXXRecordDecl *>(E->getBestDynamicClassType()),
+           RefType::Implicit);
+    return true;
+  }
 };
 
 } // namespace
diff --git a/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/unittests/WalkASTTest.cpp b/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/unittests/WalkASTTest.cpp
--- a/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/unittests/WalkASTTest.cpp
+++ b/clang-tools-extra/include-cleaner/unittests/WalkASTTest.cpp
@@ -282,7 +282,6 @@
            "using ns::^function;");
 }
 
-
 TEST(WalkAST, Alias) {
   testWalk(R"cpp(
     namespace ns { int x; }
@@ -510,5 +509,14 @@
   testWalk("enum class E : int {};", "enum class ^E : int ;");
 }
 
+TEST(WalkAST, InitializerList) {
+  testWalk(R"cpp(
+       namespace std {
+        template <typename T> struct $implicit^initializer_list {};
+       })cpp",
+           R"cpp(
+       const char* s = "";
+       auto sx = ^{s};)cpp");
+}
 } // namespace
 } // namespace clang::include_cleaner