dirgrab 📁⚡

dirgrab is a simple command-line tool to grab the content of files within a directory and concatenate them, suitable for feeding project contexts into language models.

It intelligently uses Git context when available (git ls-files) to only include tracked files (respecting .gitignore), but also works seamlessly on plain directories.

Features:

• Concatenates file contents to stdout, a file (-o), or the clipboard (-c).
• Uses git ls-files in Git repositories (respects .gitignore by default).
• Optionally includes untracked files in Git repos (-u).
• Works on non-Git directories by walking the file tree.
• Allows custom exclude patterns (-e) using .gitignore glob syntax.
• Includes file headers (--- FILE: path/to/file ---) by default (disable with --no-headers).
• Skips binary/non-UTF8 files with a warning.

Installation

Ensure you have Rust and Cargo installed. Then, install dirgrab using Cargo:

cargo install dirgrab

Verify the installation:

dirgrab --version

Usage

dirgrab [OPTIONS] [TARGET_PATH]

Arguments:

• [TARGET_PATH]: Optional path to the directory or Git repository to process. Defaults to the current working directory.

Options:

• -o, --output <FILE>: Write output to a file instead of stdout.
• -c, --clipboard: Copy output to the system clipboard.
• --no-headers: Disable the default '--- FILE: ... ---' headers.
• -e, --exclude <PATTERN>: Add glob patterns to exclude files/dirs (can be used multiple times).
• -u, --include-untracked: [Git Mode Only] Include untracked files (still respects .gitignore and excludes).
• -v, -vv, -vvv: Increase verbosity level for logging.
• -h, --help: Print help information.
• -V, --version: Print version information.

Examples:

1. Grab tracked files from current Git repo to stdout (default headers):

   dirgrab
   

2. Grab files from current directory, disable headers, output to file:

   dirgrab --no-headers -o output.txt
   

3. Grab tracked files from specific repo path, copy to clipboard:

   dirgrab -c ../my-other-project/
   

4. Grab tracked + untracked files, excluding logs and build dirs:

   dirgrab -u -e "*.log" -e "target/" -e "build/"
   

5. Grab all files from a non-Git directory, excluding temp files:\

   dirgrab -e "*.tmp" /path/to/non-git-dir
   

Behavior Details

• Git Mode: If the target directory is detected as part of a Git repository, dirgrab uses git ls-files to determine which files to include. This automatically respects .gitignore rules. The -u flag adds untracked files, still respecting .gitignore. Exclusions (-e) are passed to git ls-files.
• Non-Git Mode: If the target directory is not a Git repository, dirgrab walks the directory tree. It includes all files found unless they match an exclusion pattern (-e). .gitignore files are ignored in this mode.
• File Encoding: dirgrab attempts to read files as UTF-8. If a file cannot be decoded (likely binary), it is skipped, and a warning is printed to stderr (visible with -v).
• Output: By default, file content is concatenated directly. With headers enabled (default), each file's content is preceded by --- FILE: <relative_path> ---. An extra newline is added between files for readability.

Library (dirgrab-lib)

The core logic is available as a separate library crate (dirgrab-lib) for use in other Rust projects. See its documentation on docs.rs (link will work after publishing).

License

This project is licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or link)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or link)

at your option.

Contribution

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.