DTY (Directory-to-YAML)

Overview

DTY (Directory-to-YAML) is a Python command-line tool designed for quickly generating representations of directory structures and their contents in YAML format. This tool is especially useful for structuring directory data in a token-efficient manner, making it ideal for interactions with language models like ChatGPT.

Example output

dty

my_project:
  __init__.py: ""
  main.py: |
    # Main application file
    import app

    app.run()
  app.py: |
    # App module

    def run():
        print('Running the app')
  utils:
    helper.py: |
      # Utility functions

      def helper():
          return 'Helper function'

Features

• Convert directory contents to YAML format.
• Include or exclude files using patterns (supports fnmatch style, e.g., *.py, data*).
• Recursive directory parsing.
• Options for output: printing to console, saving to a file, or copying to the clipboard.

Installation

pip install dty

Usage

Run DTY from the command line with the following options:

dty <target-directory> [options]

If no target directory is specified, DTY will default to the current working directory.

Options:

• -t or --target-file: Target a single file. This option is mutually exclusive with -i, -e, and -r.
• -i or --include: Patterns to include files. Enclose patterns in quotes to avoid shell expansion (e.g., '*.py', 'data*').
• -e or --exclude: Patterns to exclude files. Enclose patterns in quotes to avoid shell expansion (e.g., '*.xml', 'temp*').
• -o or --output-file: Set the output YAML file name.
• -r or --recursive: Enable recursive search in directories. Not valid when targeting a single file.
• -p or --print: Print the output using rich formatting.
• -c or --clipboard: Copy the output to the clipboard.

Example

dty myfolder -i '*.py' '*.html' -o output.yaml -r

This command will parse all .py and .html files in myfolder recursively and save the YAML output to output.yaml.

Authors

• Adrian Galilea - Initial work

Acknowledgments

• Hat tip to ChatGPT for assistance with project setup and documentation.