fencecat ⚖️🐈

Recursively emit Markdown code fences labeled with relative file paths.
Perfect for sharing source trees in LLM chats, issues, blog posts, or code reviews.

Features

• Walks a directory tree and prints each file inside a fenced code block.
• Labels fences with the file’s relative path.
• Automatically chooses fence length so embedded backticks don’t break.
• Skips binary files and empty files.
• Supports filtering by file extension (allow list and deny list).
• Supports filtering by path Regex (allow list and deny list).
• Optional: order by file size (largest first).
• Optional: copy the entire output to your clipboard.

Installation

cargo install --locked fencecat

The resulting binary will be in ~/.cargo/bin/fencecat.

Usage

fencecat [OPTIONS] [DIR]

Options

• -c, --copy Copy the full output to the clipboard. On Wayland/X11 this uses external tools (wl-copy, xclip, or xsel) if available.

• -B, --biggest-first Order files by size, largest first.

• --ext EXT[,EXT...] Only include files with the given extensions. Examples:

  fencecat . --ext rs,ts,py
  fencecat src --ext .md,.toml
  

• --not-ext EXT[,EXT...] Exclude files with the given extensions. This takes precedence over inclusions. Example:

  fencecat . --not-ext lock,txt
  

• --regex PATTERN Only include paths that match the given Regex pattern (relative to the current working directory). Can be specified multiple times to add multiple patterns.

• --not-regex PATTERN Exclude paths that match the given Regex pattern. Can be specified multiple times.

• -h, --help Show help information.

• -V, --version Show version.

• --no-ignore Include hidden and gitignored files (disables ignore rules).

Examples

Emit all files under src/:

fencecat src

Emit only Rust and Python files:

fencecat . --ext rs,py

Exclude lock files and text files:

fencecat . --not-ext lock,txt

Emit only files in a controllers or models folder using Regex:

fencecat src --regex "controllers/" --regex "models/"

Exclude test files using Regex:

fencecat . --not-regex "test" --not-regex "_spec\."

Copy output to clipboard for pasting into GitHub:

fencecat . -c

Sort files by size:

fencecat . -B

Clipboard Notes

On Linux/Wayland:

• Install wl-clipboard for wl-copy / wl-paste.
• If unavailable, xclip or xsel under XWayland are used.
• macOS uses pbcopy; Windows uses PowerShell’s Set-Clipboard.

If the clipboard still seems empty, check your compositor or portal logs.

License

MIT