files-to-prompt

files-to-prompt is a command-line tool that recursively reads all files in a specified directory (respecting .gitignore) and concatenates their contents into a structured format, making it easy to use as a prompt for Large Language Models (LLMs).

This tool is particularly useful when preparing large codebases or documentation as a prompt for an LLM, allowing users to efficiently gather and format multiple files into a structured input.

Installation

cargo install files-to-prompt

Pre-compiled binaries for direct download... coming soon!

Usage

files-to-prompt [OPTIONS] [PATHS]...

Arguments

• [PATHS]... Directories or files to process. Defaults to the current directory (.)

Options

• --include-hidden Include hidden files in the output
• --ignore <IGNORE_PATTERNS> Glob patterns of files or directories to ignore
• --ignore-gitignore Ignore .gitignore files when scanning directories
• -n, --line-numbers Include line numbers in the output
• -c, --cxml Output in an XML-like format suitable for Claude's long context window
• -m, --markdown Output Markdown fenced code blocks
• -o, --output <OUTPUT> Output file (default: stdout) or location (for -r, default: current directory)
• -j, --json Output JSON compatible with CodeSandbox API/CLI
• -r, --reverse Reverse operation. Reads files from stdin and writes to disk. Requires -c/--cxml.
• -e, --extension <EXTENSIONS> Only include files with the given extension(s)
• -h, --help Print help information
• -V, --version Print version information

Examples

Concatenate all files recursively in the current directory into a single Markdown prompt

files-to-prompt --markdown

./sample.cpp
```cpp
#include <iostream>
int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello, C++!" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}
```
./sample.java
```java
public class Sample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello, Java!");
    }
}
```
...

Output in XML-like format for Claude to file

files-to-prompt --cxml --output output.xml

cat output.xml
<documents>
<document path="./file1.txt">
Contents of file1.txt
</document>
<document path="./file2.txt">
Contents of file2.txt
</document>
<document path="./folder/file3.txt">
Contents of file3.txt
</document>
</documents>

Reverse operation: read from stdin and write files to disk

echo '<documents><document path="file1.txt">Contents of file1.txt</document><document path="file2.txt">Contents of file2.txt</document><document path="folder/file3.txt">Contents of file3.txt</document></documents>' \
  | files-to-prompt --reverse --cxml

Concatenate files, including hidden ones, while ignoring specific patterns

files-to-prompt --include-hidden --ignore "\*.log"

Only include specified extensions

files-to-prompt -e c -e cpp -e h

More examples

For more examples, see tests/cli-tests.rs.

Credit

This project is a Rust port of the original files-to-prompt written in Python by Simon Willison.

License

MIT License