Code-Collector

A script to collect source code from multiple directories into a single text file. Perfect for code analysis, sharing projects with AI chatbots, archiving, or creating context for refactoring!

Features ✨

• Collects Python, Java, C, and C++ files by default (option to include all files 🌐)
• Ignores common directories: .idea, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .env 🚫
• Add custom directories to exclude with --exclude 🛑
• Exclude specific file types/extensions with --exclude-langs 🚷
• Supports multiple input folders 🗂️
• Preserves file structure with relative paths 🧭
• Resilient to file read errors — continues even if some files fail 🔒
• User-friendly CLI with full argument support 🖥️

Installation 🛠️

1. Make sure you have Python 3.7+ installed 🐍
2. Clone this repo or copy the files

macOS (Homebrew) 🍎

brew install MikhailOnyanov/code-collector/code-collector

Pip-like installations

Pick one of the options below depending on your workflow.

Preferred: Install with pipx – CLI tools 🧰

pipx install .

💡 pipx ensures isolated, system-wide access to the CLI tool without polluting your global Python environment.

Install with uv (recommended for .venv) ⚡

uv pip install .

Install with pip

pip install .

After installation, use the collect-code command from anywhere! 🚀

Usage 🚀

Collect code files from one folder (Python, Java, C, C++ by default):

collect-code ./src

Collect from multiple folders:

collect-code ./src ./tests ./utils

Collect all files (not just default languages):

collect-code ./project --all-files

Exclude additional directories:

collect-code ./src --exclude node_modules build dist

Exclude specific file types/extensions:

# Exclude Python files
collect-code ./src --exclude-langs=py

# Exclude multiple file types (Java and C++)
collect-code ./src --exclude-langs=java,cpp,hpp

# Works with or without dots in extension names
collect-code ./src --exclude-langs=.py,.java

Combine directory and file-type exclusions:

# Exclude 'build' directory and all Java files
collect-code ./src --exclude build --exclude-langs=java

# Exclude multiple directories and file types
collect-code ./project --exclude node_modules dist --exclude-langs=cpp,h

Example Output 📄

The generated collected_code.txt will look like:

[project/src/main.py]
def hello():
    print("Hello, world!")

[project/src/utils/helper.py]
class Helper:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

...

Output File 📂

Results are saved to collected_code.txt in your current working directory.

Technical Details ⚙️

• Language: Python 3.7+
• Dependencies: Standard library only 🚫📦
• License: MIT 📜
• Files: collect_code.py, setup.py
• Supported Languages by Default: Python (.py), Java (.java), C (.c, .h), C++ (.cpp, .cc, .cxx, .hpp)

Understanding the Flags

• --exclude: Excludes directories from being traversed (e.g., node_modules, build)
• --exclude-langs: Excludes file types based on their extensions (e.g., py, java)
• --all-files: Overrides default language filtering and collects all file types (but still respects --exclude-langs)

Development 🛠️

Setup Development Environment

Install with uv:

uv pip install -e .

Run directly without installation:

python collect_code.py ./src --all-files

Running Tests 🧪

Run the test suite:

python -m unittest test_collect_code -v

Or with pytest (if installed):

pytest test_collect_code.py -v

Code Quality

Format code with ruff:

uv tool run ruff format collect_code.py test_collect_code.py

Lint code:

uv tool run ruff check collect_code.py test_collect_code.py

The test suite includes:

• Unit tests for the collect_files function with detailed docstrings
• Unit tests for CLI argument parsing
• Integration tests for end-to-end scenarios
• Test fixtures to reduce code duplication

All tests run automatically on every push via GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.

Author 👨‍💻

@MikhailOnyanov

Created to simplify code sharing with AI chat interfaces and streamline project analysis. 💬