A modern, beautiful, and powerful command-line directory tree generator. treely goes beyond a simple tree command by offering smart filtering, automatic .gitignore parsing, and a killer feature: the ability to output the contents of your code files, ready to be saved, shared, or copied directly to your clipboard.

It's the perfect tool for scaffolding a project's structure for documentation, preparing context for AI/LLM prompts, or getting a high-level overview of a new codebase.

(Note: The demo GIF shows an older version!)

• Elegant Tree Structure: Generates a clean, easy-to-read directory tree with colorful output.
• Powerful Code Context: Use --code to print all relevant code, and then use the --exclude flag to surgically remove files, directories, or patterns (like lib/* or *.log) from the code output without hiding them from the tree.
• Automatic .gitignore Support: The --use-gitignore flag intelligently and automatically excludes files and directories specified in your .gitignore file. No more manual --ignore flags for node_modules or dist!
• Export & Share:
  • Copy to Clipboard (-c): Instantly copy the entire tree and code output to your clipboard, perfect for pasting into LLM prompts (like GPT), GitHub issues, or pull requests.
  • Save to File (-o): Save the clean, colorless output directly to a file for documentation or artifacts.
• Advanced Filtering & Display:
  • Limit the tree depth (-L).
  • Filter by glob patterns (--pattern).
  • Ignore files and directories from the tree (--ignore).
  • Display file sizes (--show-size).
  • Get a project summary (-s).
• Cross-Platform: Works seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

You can install treely directly from PyPI. The necessary dependencies (pyperclip and pathspec) will be installed automatically.

pip install treely

Ensure that your Python scripts directory is in your system's PATH to run treely from anywhere.

To generate a tree for the current directory:

treely

For a specific directory:

treely /path/to/your/project

This is the output from treely --help, showing the new, simplified flags.

usage: treely [-h] [-a] [-L LEVEL] [--pattern PATTERN] [--ignore PATTERNS] [--code] [--exclude PATTERNS] [--use-gitignore] [-s] [--show-size] [-o [FILENAME]] [-c] [root_path]

A beautiful and professional directory tree generator.

positional arguments:
  root_path             The starting folder for the tree. Uses current folder if not specified.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -a, --all             Show all items, including hidden ones (e.g., '.git').
  -L LEVEL, --level LEVEL
                        How many folders deep to look (e.g., -L 2).
  --pattern PATTERN     Show only files/folders that match a pattern (e.g., "*.py").
  --ignore PATTERNS     Don't show items matching a pattern in the tree. Use '|' to separate.
  --code                Display the content of all detected code files after the tree.
  --exclude PATTERNS    When using --code, exclude files/folders from the code output.
                        Use '|' to separate patterns (e.g., "lib/*|*.log|file.js").
  --use-gitignore       Automatically ignore files/dirs from the tree listed in .gitignore.
  -s, --summary         Print a summary of the number of directories and files.
  --show-size           Display the size of each file.
  -o [FILENAME], --output [FILENAME]
                        Save output to a file. Defaults to 'treely_output.txt'. Banner/colors are excluded.
  -c, --copy            Copy output to the clipboard. Banner/colors are excluded.

Examples:
  # Generate a tree for the current folder
  treely

  # Use the project's .gitignore to automatically exclude files from the tree
  treely --use-gitignore

  # Show the tree and the content of all code files
  treely --code

  # Show code content, but exclude all files in 'lib' and 'custom' directories
  treely --code --exclude "lib/*|custom/*"

  # Show code, but exclude all HTML files and a specific JS file
  treely --code --exclude "*.html|panel.js"

This is the recommended way to get a clean overview of any project. treely will read your .gitignore and automatically exclude node_modules/ and .env from the tree.

Command:

treely my-web-app --use-gitignore

Output:

my-web-app/
├── public/
│   └── index.html
├── src/
│   ├── App.js
│   └── index.js
├── .gitignore
└── package.json

Notice how .git and node_modules are all gone with one simple flag!

Generate a complete project overview with file sizes and a summary, and save it directly to a Markdown file.

Command:

treely my-web-app --use-gitignore --show-size -s -o project_structure.md

Console Message:

... (banner) ...
✔ Output successfully saved to project_structure.md

This is treely's superpower. Generate a complete project context (structure and all relevant code) and copy it directly to your clipboard. You are now ready to paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or any other LLM.

Command:

treely my-web-app --use-gitignore --code -c

Console Message:

... (banner) ...
✔ Tree structure copied to clipboard.

Your clipboard now contains the full tree and the contents of index.html, App.js, index.js, .gitignore, and package.json, perfectly formatted.

Imagine you want to provide context about a project, but you want to exclude boilerplate, libraries, or irrelevant files from the code output to save tokens and focus the AI's attention. This is where --exclude shines.

Let's use this structure:

Silence Cutter/
├── CSXS/
│   └── manifest.xml
├── custom/
│   └── Mp3.epr
├── lib/
│   ├── CSInterface.js
│   └── Vulcan.js
├── .debug
└── panel.js

Goal: Get the code for the project, but exclude the entire lib directory and the specific Mp3.epr file.

Command:

treely "Silence Cutter/" --code --exclude "lib/*|custom/Mp3.epr"

Result: The output will show the complete directory tree, including lib/ and custom/. However, the --- FILE CONTENTS --- section will intelligently skip the code for CSInterface.js, Vulcan.js, and Mp3.epr, giving you a cleaner, more focused result.

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.