lmcat 0.0.1

concatenating files for tossing them into a language model

lmcat

A Python tool for concatenating files and directory structures into a single document, perfect for sharing code with language models. It respects .gitignore and .lmignore patterns and provides configurable output formatting.

Features

• Creates a tree view of your directory structure
• Includes file contents with clear delimiters
• Respects .gitignore patterns (can be disabled)
• Supports custom ignore patterns via .lmignore
• Configurable via pyproject.toml, lmcat.toml, or lmcat.json
• Python 3.11+ native, with fallback support for older versions

Installation

Install from PyPI:

pip install lmcat

Usage

Basic usage - concatenate current directory:

python -m lmcat

The output will include a directory tree and the contents of each non-ignored file.

Command Line Options

• -g, --no-include-gitignore: Ignore .gitignore files (they are included by default)
• -t, --tree-only: Only print the directory tree, not file contents
• -o, --output: Specify an output file (defaults to stdout)
• -h, --help: Show help message

Configuration

lmcat can be configured using any of these files (in order of precedence):

1. pyproject.toml (under [tool.lmcat])
2. lmcat.toml
3. lmcat.json

Configuration options:

[tool.lmcat]
tree_divider = "│   "    # Used for vertical lines in the tree
indent = "    "          # Used for indentation
file_divider = "├── "    # Used for file/directory entries
content_divider = "``````" # Used to delimit file contents
include_gitignore = true # Whether to respect .gitignore files
tree_only = false       # Whether to only show the tree

Ignore Patterns

lmcat supports two types of ignore files:

1. .gitignore - Standard Git ignore patterns (used by default)
2. .lmignore - Custom ignore patterns specific to lmcat

.lmignore follows the same pattern syntax as .gitignore. Patterns in .lmignore take precedence over .gitignore.

Example .lmignore:

# Ignore all .log files
*.log

# Ignore the build directory and its contents
build/

# Un-ignore a specific file (overrides previous patterns)
!important.log

Development

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mivanit/lmcat
cd lmcat

2. Set up the development environment:

make setup

This will:

• Create a virtual environment
• Install development dependencies
• Set up pre-commit hooks

Development Commands

The project uses make for common development tasks:

• make dep: Install/update dependencies
• make format: Format code using ruff and pycln
• make test: Run tests
• make typing: Run type checks
• make check: Run all checks (format, test, typing)
• make clean: Clean temporary files
• make docs: Generate documentation
• make build: Build the package
• make publish: Publish to PyPI (maintainers only)

Run make help to see all available commands.

Running Tests

make test

For verbose output:

VERBOSE=1 make test

For test coverage:

make cov

Roadmap

• better tests, I feel like gitignore/lmignore interaction is broken
• llm summarization and caching of those summaries in .lmsummary/
• reasonable defaults for file extensions to ignore
• web interface