llmcat

Prepare files and directories for LLM consumption

TLDR

Open the interactive fzf picker and copy the selection to the clipboard

$ llmcat

Copy a single file with formatted headers

$ llmcat [path/to/file.txt]

Walk a directory and copy every non-ignored file

$ llmcat [./src]

Print only the directory tree, no file contents

$ llmcat --tree-only [./src]

Add custom ignore patterns on top of .gitignore

$ llmcat -i [*.log] -i [*.tmp] [./src]

Include hidden files and skip .gitignore rules

$ llmcat --hidden --no-ignore [./src]

Show what was copied to the clipboard

$ llmcat -p [./src]

llmcat packages source files into a single LLM-friendly text blob and copies it to the system clipboard. Each file is wrapped with a header containing its path, so that a chat assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude can identify which file each snippet came from. Directories are walked respecting .gitignore by default, with additional ignore patterns added through -i.When invoked without a path, llmcat opens an fzf-powered fuzzy picker with a live preview pane, supporting multi-file selection via Tab. With a path argument, it bypasses the picker and processes the target non-interactively, which is useful inside shell scripts and editor integrations.

PARAMETERS

-i, --ignore PATTERN

Add a glob pattern to the ignore list (repeatable; uses the fd glob format).

-t, --tree-only

Output only the directory tree, not file contents.

-p, --print

Print the copied output to stdout in addition to the clipboard.

-n, --no-ignore

Ignore .gitignore files when walking the tree.

-H, --hidden

Include hidden files and directories.

-q, --quiet

Silent mode — copy to clipboard without printing anything.

-h, --help

Show usage information.

-v, --version

Print the version and exit.

INTERACTIVE KEYBINDINGS

$ Tab        Mark / unmark file
Shift-Tab  Unmark file
Ctrl-/     Toggle preview pane
Ctrl-D     Switch to directory mode
Ctrl-F     Switch to file mode
Enter      Confirm selection
Esc        Exit without copying

CAVEATS

llmcat depends on fzf for the interactive picker and on a system clipboard utility (pbcopy on macOS, xclip or wl-copy on Linux). Output for very large directories can exceed an LLM's context window — combine --tree-only with selective -i patterns or pipe through a token-counting tool first. There are several unrelated GitHub projects also called *llmcat*; this page documents the azer/llmcat implementation.

HISTORY

llmcat was created by Azer Koçulu (azer) and published at github.com/azer/llmcat. It is one of several "cat for LLMs" utilities to emerge in 2024–2025 around the workflow of pasting code into chat-based assistants.