simple-workspace-contextualizer 0.2.1

Serialize a repository into XML-like workspace context for LLM input

simple-workspace-contextualizer

swc serializes a repository into a compact XML-like format that is easy to paste into an LLM.

It is designed for fast repository inspection:

• the current working directory is treated as the project root
• .gitignore files are respected
• ignored directories are pruned eagerly for performance
• <file_tree> is always printed
• <file_contents> is only printed when you explicitly request files with include patterns

Example:

swc

<workspace_context>
  <file_tree>
    swe-bench-pro-harness/
    ├── README.md
    ├── evaluate.sh
    ├── inference.sh
    ├── setup_evaluation.sh
    └── setup_inference.sh
  </file_tree>
  <file_contents>
    <file path="README.md">
      ...
    </file>
    <file path="evaluate.sh">
      ...
    </file>
    <file path="inference.sh">
      ...
    </file>
    <file path="setup_evaluation.sh">
      ...
    </file>
    <file path="setup_inference.sh">
      ...
    </file>
  </file_contents>
</workspace_context>

Installation

If installing from pip:

pip install simple-workspace-contextualizer

If installing from a local checkout:

pip install -e .

This installs the commands:

simple_workspace_contextualizer
swc

Basic usage

Run from the project root:

swc

This prints:

• <workspace_context>
• <file_tree>

and does not print <file_contents>.

To include file contents, pass one or more gitignore-style include patterns:

swc '*.py'
swc 'src/**/*.py' README.md
swc 'docs/**/*.md' pyproject.toml

IMPORTANT: single-quote patterns that include special characters like '*' or '!'.

Output format

swc prints XML-like output in this shape:

<workspace_context>
  <file_tree>
    ...
  </file_tree>
  <file_contents>
    <file path="relative/path.py">
      ...
    </file>
  </file_contents>
</workspace_context>

Notes:

• <file_tree> is always present
• <file_contents> is only present when include patterns were supplied
• file paths are always relative to the current project root

Ignore behavior

swc discovers .gitignore files in the repository and applies them relative to the directory that contains each .gitignore.

This means:

• root .gitignore patterns apply from the repo root
• nested subdir/.gitignore patterns apply from subdir/
• ignored directories are pruned immediately during traversal for performance
• .git is implicitly excluded

If no .gitignore files exist, then there are no repository ignore rules other than the implicit .git exclusion.

Include patterns

Positional arguments are gitignore-style include patterns.

They do not affect traversal of ignored directories. They only select files for <file_contents> from the files that were actually traversed.

Examples:

swc '*.md'
swc 'src/**/*.py'
swc 'src/**/*.py' tests/test_smoke.py

--ignore

Use --ignore to exclude files or directories from both <file_tree> and <file_contents>.

--ignore accepts gitignore-style patterns and may be provided multiple times.

Examples:

swc --ignore subsets
swc --ignore 'subsets/**'
swc --ignore '*.md'
swc --ignore 'docs/**/*.md'
swc --ignore 'build/'

--ignore is useful for trimming noisy files from the output even when they are not ignored by .gitignore.

--ignore prunes file traversal early, so it is also useful for large directories that would otherwise make file traversal slow.

--force

Use --force to override ignored traversal for an exact file path or directory path.

--force is not a glob. It must be a real path inside the current project root.

This is primarily useful when a directory is ignored by .gitignore and would otherwise be pruned by an ignore pattern before swc could inspect it.

Examples:

swc --force .venv
swc --force generated 'generated/**/*.ts'
swc --force subsets 'subsets/**/*.txt'

Behavior:

• If --force points to a directory, that subtree is traversed even if it is ignored
• If --force points to a file, that file is traversed and can appear even if one of its parent directories would normally be skipped.

.swc_args

You can create a file named .swc_args in the project root containing default swc arguments.

The file is a single line of space-separated arguments.

Example:

--ignore subsets 'src/**/*.py' 'README.md'

When present, swc loads .swc_args automatically and prepends those arguments before the command-line arguments you typed.

That means you can saved and re-use common patterns and just type swc to repeat those queries.

Your explicit command-line arguments are appended after the saved .swc_args arguments so you can still refine the query.

Disable loading

Use either of these to skip .swc_args loading:

swc --no-load
swc -nl

--save

Use --save to save the current effective arguments back to .swc_args.

The save only happens after a successful run.

Examples:

swc --ignore subsets 'src/**/*.py' --save
swc --force generated 'generated/**/*.ts' --save

Notes:

• --save itself is not written into .swc_args
• --no-load / -nl are also not written into .swc_args

Shell quoting tip

If a pattern contains shell wildcard characters, single-quote it.

Examples:

swc '*.py'
swc --ignore '*-requirements.txt'
swc 'docs/**/*.md'

Why this matters:

• unquoted wildcards are expanded by your shell before swc sees them
• this can change the meaning of the command
• single quotes are the safest default

For example:

swc --ignore '*-requirements.txt'

is correct, but:

swc --ignore *-requirements.txt

may be expanded by the shell into multiple filenames before swc starts.

Recommended workflow

1. Inspect the tree

swc

2. Add the files you want as context

swc 'src/**/*.py' 'README.md'

3. Trim noisy areas if needed

swc --ignore 'tests/fixtures/**' 'src/**/*.py'

4. Force a normally ignored subtree if needed

swc --force generated 'generated/**/*.ts'

5. Save a standing query

swc --ignore subsets 'src/**/*.py' 'README.md' --save

Then later:

swc

will automatically reuse those saved defaults unless you pass --no-load.

Example commands

swc
swc '*.md'
swc 'src/**/*.py' 'README.md'
swc --ignore subsets 'src/**/*.py'
swc --ignore 'build/' --ignore '*.log' 'src/**/*.py'
swc --force generated 'generated/**/*.ts'
swc --no-load 'src/**/*.py'
swc 'src/**/*.py' --save

Summary

• run swc from the project root
• .gitignore controls baseline traversal
• <file_tree> is always printed
• <file_contents> is opt-in
• use positional patterns to include file contents
• use --ignore to remove things from output
• use --force to traverse ignored paths
• use .swc_args and --save for standing queries
• single-quote any pattern containing wildcard characters