README

• Summary
• Install
  • Installing the Emacs Interface Mode
• Features
• Usage
  • Multi-line
  • Filter keyword
  • Ignore with keyword
  • Excluding some folder
  • Expand json file
  • Local arguments
  • Delete the crumbs
  • Restore the crumbs
  • Run format after clean the crumbs
  • Output to different format of files
  • Output the range of context

Other Versions (have some features different):

• code_it_later_ml ocaml version
• code-it-later clojure version
• code_it_later_hs haskell version

Summary

Create flags in your source code where there may be problems or potential optimizations. codeitlater helps you track these flags (crumbs) and fix them in the future.

Install

cargo install code-it-later-rs

Installing the Emacs Interface Mode

I developed the code-it-later-mode, which serves as an interface mode for Emacs.

Features

• Extract crumbs (comments containing :=) in source code.
• Filter comments depending on different keywords.
• Scan specific directory paths or files.
• Support custom languages via configuration.

Languages supported by default:

• rs
• go
• lisp
• py
• hs
• el
• clj
• js

If you want to support other languages, check expand json file.

Usage

Write code as usual. For any comment line you want to track, add the := symbol immediately after the comment prefix.

Then run the codeitlater command in your terminal to retrieve those crumbs.

For example:

Golang:

// /user/src/main.go
// test codeitlater
//:= this line can be read by codeitlater
//:= MARK: you can leave a keyword to mark the comment line
/*:= multiline comments
*/

Then running codeitlater in the root path:

|-- /user/src/main.go
  |-- Line 3: this line can be read by codeitlater
  |-- Line 4: MARK: you can leave a keyword to mark the comment line
  |-- Line 5: multiline comments

Python:

# /src/main.py
# this line wont be read
#:= this line for codeitlater
print("aaa") ###:= this line can be read again

Run codeitlater /path/to/this_py.py.

You will get:

|-- /src/main.py
  |-- Line 3: this line for codeitlater
  |-- Line 4: this line can be read again

Specify file types

codeitlater -f clj

You will get results only from Clojure files.

codeitlater -f clj -f py

Then results from both Clojure and Python files will return.

codeitlater -f clj -f py /path/to/file /path/to/dir

Multi-line

When a crumb line ends with ..., the content of the next line (which must also start with a crumb marker) is appended to it. You can chain multiple lines this way.

For example:

//:= line1...
//:= , and line2...
//:= line3 with line2...

//:= line4 is different...
//:= with line5
//:= line6

Will give you:

  |-- Line 1: line1 , and line2 line3 with line2...
  |-- Line 4: line4 is different with line5
  |-- Line 6: line6

Filter keyword

Keyword format is Keyword: followed by a space.

Filter by keyword (use the -k or --keywords flags; check out more flags with -h):

codeitlater -k MARK

You will get:

|-- /user/src/main.go
  |-- Line 4: MARK: you can leave a keyword to mark the comment line

Similar to file types, if you want to query multiple keywords together:

codeitlater -k TODO --keywords MARK

CAUTION: If keywords and multi-line crumbs are mixed, the multi-line feature takes priority.

Example:

//:= TODO: aaaa...
//:= bbb...
//:= MARK: ccc

Both codeitlater and codeitlater -k TODO will show:

|-- Line 1: TODO: aaaa bbb MARK: ccc

codeitlater -k MARK will show nothing.

Ignore with keyword

To exclude specific crumbs from default runs:

//:= !JIRA-123: hello world
//:= line2

The first line "hello world" will be ignored by default because it starts with '!'. To display it, query for its specific keyword:

codeitlater -k JIRA-123

Or pass the --show-ignored flag to display all ignored crumbs:

codeitlater --show-ignored

Excluding some folder

codeitlater -x vendor will ignore all files in the vendor directory (recursively).

Expand json file

Check tests/testcases/test.json. If you run codeitlater -j ./tests/testcases/test.json, the "rs" entry in the built-in dictionary is overridden by the value in the JSON file. Other languages remain unchanged.

Local arguments

codeitlater will look for a .codeitlater file in the current working directory ($PWD/.codeitlater) to pre-load configuration arguments. Any arguments passed directly on the command line override those in .codeitlater, except for ignore directories (-x), which are merged together.

Delete the crumbs

codeitlater -D target removes crumb comments from files in the targeted folder. Deletion triggers an interactive prompt with y/n/s/i options:

• y: delete all crumbs shown.
• n: do nothing.
• s: show (re-print the list of crumbs).
• i: interactive mode (allows you to review and confirm deletion file-by-file or crumb-by-crumb).

You can delete special keywords with codeitlater -D -k TODO. Generally, -D is handled after the normal scan workflow completes.

Restore the crumbs

Similar to the delete feature, but this option restores the crumb markers inside the code back to regular comments.

//:= here

will restore to:

// here

Run format after clean the crumbs

After cleaning crumbs from your files, you might want to run a formatter. The --fmt option specifies a formatter command to run automatically after cleaning.

For example:

codeitlater -D --fmt "go fmt" . will delete your crumbs and run go fmt on the files. The command passed to --fmt must be a standalone executable command.

As with all other options, you can add this inside your local .codeitlater configuration file.

Output to different format of files

-O/--output-format outputs the crumbs in a specific format.

Supported formats:

• json
• list

Example:

codeitlater -O json .

Output the range of context

-r/--range <N> outputs N lines above and below the crumb to provide more context (useful for feeding context to LLM agents).