codecontext

Extract your codebase context for AI assistants.

A zero-dependency CLI tool that packages your project structure, key files, and git history into a formatted prompt for Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI coding assistants.

pip install ctxcode
cd my-project
codecontext

Why?

When asking AI assistants about your code, you spend minutes copy-pasting file trees, key files, and git history. codecontext does it in one command — giving the AI full project context for better answers.

Install

pip install ctxcode

Or run directly:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hanu-14/codecontext/main/src/ctxcode/cli.py
python -m ctxcode

Usage

# Full context (tree + files + git history)
codecontext

# Specific project
codecontext path/to/project

# Output formats
codecontext --format markdown    # default - ready for AI chat
codecontext --format plain       # plain text
codecontext --format json        # machine-readable

# Copy to clipboard
codecontext --clipboard

# Save to file
codecontext -o context.md

# Exclude custom patterns
codecontext --exclude "*.log" "tmp/" "*.csv"

# Show hidden files
codecontext --hidden

# Exclude git info
codecontext --no-git

# Adjust limits
codecontext --max-files 100 --max-lines 150

Short alias

ctx                # same as codecontext
ctx ./src          # specific directory
ctx --clipboard    # copy to clipboard

Configuration

Place a .codecontext.toml in your project root:

git = true
max_files = 300
max_lines = 250
format = "markdown"
exclude = ["*.log", "tmp/"]
hidden = false

JSON and YAML formats are also supported (.codecontext.json, .codecontext.yml).

Output

The tool produces a structured document with:

1. Project metadata — path, git remote, branch
2. Git history — recent commits and uncommitted changes
3. File tree — with file sizes for every entry
4. Key files — source files with syntax highlighting
5. Stats summary — total files and size at a glance

Perfect for pasting directly into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI coding assistant.

Features

• Zero dependencies — pure Python, no pip installs beyond this package
• Smart ignore — automatically skips .git, node_modules, __pycache__, binaries, and more
• Git aware — includes branch, remote, recent commits, and diff stats
• File limit safety — won't overwhelm your context window
• Language detection — syntax-highlighted code blocks for 30+ languages
• Clipboard support — --clipboard copies output directly to your clipboard
• Multiple formats — markdown, plain text, or JSON
• Config file — project-specific settings via .codecontext.toml
• Custom excludes — ignore additional patterns with --exclude
• File sizes — every file in the tree shows its size

Example

$ codecontext --format markdown

Produces:

# Codebase Context

Generated from: /Users/me/my-project
Remote: git@github.com:user/my-project.git
Branch: main

Recent commits:
abc1234 feat: add user authentication
def5678 fix: resolve payment timeout

## Project Structure

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py (2KB)
│   └── utils.py (1KB)
├── tests/
│   └── test_main.py (3KB)
├── pyproject.toml (1KB)
└── README.md (3KB)

## Key Files (6 files, 10KB)

### `src/main.py`

```python
def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

...

## Changelog

### v0.2.0
- Clipboard support (`--clipboard`)
- Multiple output formats: markdown, plain, JSON
- Configuration file support (`.codecontext.toml`, `.json`, `.yml`)
- File sizes in tree output
- Custom exclude patterns (`--exclude`)
- Hidden files flag (`--hidden`)
- Stats summary in output

### v0.1.0
- Initial release
- File tree with smart ignore patterns
- Git history integration
- Syntax highlighting for 30+ languages
- CLI alias `ctx`

## License

MIT