CodeTxt

A CLI tool to turn any Git repository into a prompt-friendly text ingest for LLMs.

Whether you're preparing codebases for AI analysis, training data, or static search indexing, CodeTxt helps you generate clean, filtered code dumps with ease.

Installation

Prerequisites

First, ensure you have Node.js (v18 or higher) installed on your system.

Global Installation

You can install the CLI globally in one of two ways:

Option 1: Install from local project

# After cloning the repository
npm install -g .

This command needs to be run from the root of the project. It will build the TypeScript code and link the codetxt command to your system.

Option 2: Install from npm registry (when published)

npm install -g codetxt

After installation, you can use the codetxt command from anywhere in your terminal.

Usage

The CLI is simple to use. You can point it to a remote Git repository or a local directory.

From a Remote URL

codetxt https://github.com/facebook/react

From a Local Directory

# Analyze the current directory
codetxt .

# Analyze a specific local path
codetxt /path/to/my/project

Options

Flag	Alias	Description	Default
--output <file>	-o	Specify an output file. Use - for stdout.	code.txt
--max-size <bytes>	-s	Skip files larger than this size in bytes.	10MB
--branch <name>	-b	For remote repos, specify a branch to clone.	Default repo branch
--include-pattern <glob>		Only include files/directories matching the glob pattern(s).	-
--exclude-pattern <glob>		Exclude files/directories matching the glob pattern(s).	-
--include-gitignored		Process files and directories that are normally ignored by .gitignore.	false
--force	-f	Overwrite an existing output file without asking for confirmation.	false
--token <pat>	-t	GitHub Personal Access Token for private repositories.	-

Examples

Basic Usage

Write to a specific file:

codetxt https://github.com/expressjs/express -o express-code.txt

Pipe output to another command (e.g., grep):

codetxt . -o - | grep "function"

Analyze a specific branch and ignore large files:

codetxt https://github.com/vuejs/core --branch main --max-size 50000

Include files normally ignored by .gitignore:

codetxt . --include-gitignored -o all-files.txt

Advanced Pattern Filtering

The tool supports powerful glob-style pattern filtering for fine-grained control over which files to include or exclude. This is especially useful for monorepos or workspaces with multiple projects.

Exclude Patterns (--exclude-pattern)

Use this to skip specific files or entire directories.

Exclude a specific directory (e.g., docs/):

codetxt . --exclude-pattern "docs/"

Result: Will analyze the entire project but skip the docs directory and all its contents.

Exclude multiple directories and file types:

codetxt . --exclude-pattern "project-A/" --exclude-pattern "tests/" --exclude-pattern "*.log"

Result: Will skip project-A, the tests directory, and any file ending with .log.

Include Patterns (--include-pattern)

Use this to create a "whitelist" of what you want to analyze. Everything else will be ignored.

Include only a specific directory and its contents:

codetxt . --include-pattern "project-A/**"

Result: Will analyze only the contents of project-A. All other files and directories will be ignored.

Include only JavaScript and Markdown files from the entire project:

codetxt . --include-pattern "**/*.js" --include-pattern "**/*.md"

Result: The digest will only contain JavaScript and Markdown files.

Important Notes on Include Logic

When using --include-pattern, the tool assumes you want nothing except what matches the pattern:

• For files: The filename must match the pattern to be included.
• For directories: The tool will traverse all directories, but only those containing files that match the include pattern will appear in the final output tree.

This gives you complete control over what gets analyzed, which is perfect for focusing on specific parts of a large codebase.

How to Set Up for Development

1. Clone this repository.
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Build the project: npm run build
4. Run directly using ts-node: npm start .