This tool concatenates files from a directory into a single prompt for Large Language Models (LLMs), aiding users in providing comprehensive context. It's designed for developers and researchers working with LLMs who need to efficiently bundle codebases or documentation.

How It Works

The tool recursively traverses specified directories, optionally filtering by file extension, including hidden files, and respecting .gitignore patterns. It outputs file contents, prefixed by their relative paths, separated by ---. Special formatting options include Claude XML and Markdown fenced code blocks for LLM-specific prompt structuring.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Install via pip: pip install files-to-prompt
• Requires Python 3.x.
• Official docs: https://simonw.github.io/files-to-prompt/

Highlighted Details

• Supports filtering by multiple extensions (-e).
• Includes options to include hidden files (--include-hidden) and ignore specific patterns (--ignore).
• Offers output formats for Claude XML (--cxml) and Markdown (--markdown).
• Can read file paths from stdin, supporting NUL-separated input (--null) for filenames with spaces.

Maintenance & Community

• Developed by Simon Willison.
• Development can be followed via the GitHub repository.

Licensing & Compatibility

• Licensed under the MIT License.
• Permissive license suitable for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

The tool's primary function is file concatenation; it does not perform semantic analysis or intelligent summarization of the content. Large numbers of files or very large files may result in prompts exceeding LLM context window limits.