Chettu (చెట్టు) - Project File Collector

Chettu (Telugu for "tree") is a command-line tool that generates a comprehensive XML representation of your project's file structure and content. Perfect for providing context to LLMs, archiving project states, or programmatic codebase analysis.

Features

• Recursive Directory Scanning with customizable ignore rules via .gitignore and .chettuignore
• XML Output containing both file tree visualization and complete file contents
• Flexible Command-Line Control for directories, ignore patterns, and output options
• Clipboard Integration with configurable size limits
• Safe File Handling with overwrite confirmation prompts

Installation

go install github.com/saharshxyz/chettu

Quick Start

# Scan current directory
chettu

# Generate XML output file
chettu -o project_snapshot.xml

# Scan specific directory with custom ignores
chettu -d /path/to/project -l "*.log" -o output.xml

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/saharshxyz/chettu.git
cd chettu
go build -o chettu .
./chettu -o output.xml

Command-line Flags

Flag	Short	Description	Default
--directory	-d	Directory to scan (repeatable)	./
--ignore-line	-l	Pattern to ignore (repeatable)	.git + binary/media extensions
--ignore-file	-f	Ignore file to use (repeatable)	[".gitignore", ".chettuignore"]
--reset-ignore		Discard default ignore patterns	false
--project-name	-n	Set project name (appears in output)	"" (no project name)
--output-file	-o	Output file path	"" (no file output)
--output-file-replace	-R	Force overwrite existing output file (requires -o)	false
--copy	-c	Copy to clipboard with max size in bytes	50000 (50KB)

Usage Examples

# Multiple directories
chettu -d ./src -d ./docs

# Set project name
chettu -n "My Awesome Project"

# Custom ignore patterns
chettu -l "*.log" -l "dist"

# Custom ignore file
chettu -f .my_custom_ignores

# Only custom ignores (reset defaults)
chettu --reset-ignore -l "*.tmp" -l "vendor"

# Force file overwrite
chettu -o project_structure.xml -R

# Combined options
chettu -n "My Project" -d /path/to/project -l "*.log" -o output.xml -c 200000

Output Format

Generates XML with <project> root containing:

• <project_name>: Project name (when specified with -n flag)
• <source_tree>: Text-based directory visualization
• <files>: Individual <file> elements with path attribute and content

<project>
    <project_name>My Awesome Project</project_name>
    <source_tree>
        .
        ├── README.md
        ├── src
        │   └── main.go
        └── docs
            └── guide.md
    </source_tree>
    <files>
        <file path="README.md">
            # My Project
            This is the main README file.
        </file>
        <file path="src/main.go">
            package main

            import "fmt"

            func main() {
                fmt.Println("Hello, World!")
            }
        </file>
        <file path="docs/guide.md">
            ## Guide
            This is a guide for using My Project.
        </file>
    </files>
</project>

Dependencies

• github.com/spf13/pflag
• github.com/sabhiram/go-gitignore
• golang.design/x/clipboard