Context Creator

Have you ever found yourself manually copying and pasting code into a single file to feed to an AI model? Or maybe you needed to give a new collaborator a quick overview of a project, but didn't want to send them a zip file full of junk.

This tool was built to solve that exact problem.

context-creator is a simple, powerful command-line utility that walks through your project directory, grabs all the relevant source code, and combines it all into a single, clean text file. It's smart enough to ignore the things you don't need, using a .contextignore file that works just like the .gitignore you already know and love.

The goal is simple: less time spent on tedious prep work, more time focused on what matters.

Key Features

• Zero-Config Start: Run it in any project, and it just works.
• Intelligent Ignoring: Automatically creates and uses a .contextignore file with sensible defaults to skip dependency folders, build artifacts, and local configs.
• Clear, Structured Output: The generated file starts with a directory tree, followed by the contents of each file, clearly demarcated.
• Fast and Focused: A single, lightweight utility with no dependencies, designed to do one job perfectly.

Getting Started

1. Installation

The tool is hosted on PyPI. All you need is Python installed, then run:

pip install context-creator

2. First Run

Navigate your terminal into any of your project directories and simply run the command:

context

The first time you run it, you'll see this output:

Created default .contextignore file.
Generated context.txt.

Two things have happened:

1. A context.txt file has been created in your project root. This is your project's complete context, ready to be used.
2. A .contextignore file has also been created. This comes pre-filled with common patterns to ignore things like node_modules, .git, and Python virtual environments.

Usage

While the default is designed to be all you need, you can easily customize its behavior.

• Specify a directory:

  context /path/to/another/project
  

• Set a custom output file name:

  context -o project_overview.md
  

Customizing with .contextignore

The real power comes from tailoring the context to your exact needs. Open the .contextignore file in your project. It's just a plain text file where each line is a pattern to ignore.

For example, if you want to also ignore all markdown files, just add this line:

*.md

The tool will now skip any file with a .md extension during its next run.

This project is open-source and released under the MIT License.