folder-tree-print

A zero-dependency CLI tool that prints your folder structure as a beautiful, colorized tree. Great for LLM context, README docs, and sharing project layouts.

What it does

Running folder-tree-print in any directory prints a tree view of its contents:

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── Header.tsx
│   │   └── Footer.tsx
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── helpers.ts
│   └── index.ts
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

3 directories, 6 files

It automatically colorizes output (directories in blue, symlinks in cyan, executables in green), sorts directories before files, and skips common noise like node_modules and .git.

Install

npm install -g folder-tree-print

Or run directly with npx:

npx folder-tree-print

Usage

# Current directory
folder-tree

# Specific folder
folder-tree-print ./src

# Limit depth
folder-tree-print -L 3

# Include hidden files, ignore specific folders
folder-tree-print -a -I logs -I tmp

# Directories only
folder-tree-print --dirs-only

# JSON output (great for piping)
folder-tree-print --json > structure.json

# Flat list
folder-tree-print --flat

# ASCII mode for legacy terminals
folder-tree-print --ascii

# Combine flags
folder-tree-print ./src -L 2 -d --no-color

Configuration

The script includes a CONFIG object at the top of the file that you can edit before running. Here's the full reference:

Display Format

| Option | Default | Description | | --------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | displayFormat | "tree" | "tree" for box-drawing tree, "flat" for flat paths, "json" for JSON output | | treeStyle | "unicode"| "unicode" for ├── └──, "ascii" for +-- \--` (legacy terminal fallback) |

Sorting

| Option | Default | Description | | ----------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | sortOrder | "dirs-first" | "dirs-first" groups dirs above files, "alpha" pure alphabetical, "none" filesystem order |

Filtering

| Option | Default | Description | | ------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | showHidden | false | Show hidden files and directories (dotfiles) | | dirsOnly | false | Show only directories, hide all files | | maxDepth | 0 | Maximum depth to traverse (0 = no limit) | | extraSkipDirs | [] | Additional directories to skip (merged with built-in list) | | extraSkipFiles | [] | Additional files to skip (merged with built-in list) | | onlyExtensions | [] | Only show files matching these extensions (empty = all) | | excludeExtensions | [] | Hide files matching these extensions |

Colors

| Option | Default | Description | | ---------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | colorize | true | Enable colored output (blue dirs, cyan symlinks, green executables) |

Output

| Option | Default | Description | | ------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | showSummary | true | Show summary line at the end ("X directories, Y files") |

Example Configurations

Only show TypeScript and JavaScript files:

onlyExtensions: ["ts", "tsx", "js", "jsx"],

Use ASCII tree characters for CI logs:

treeStyle: "ascii",
colorize: false,

Shallow overview with no files:

dirsOnly: true,
maxDepth: 2,

CLI Options

| Flag | Short | Description | | -------------- | ----- | -------------------------------------------- | | --help | -h | Show help message | | --all | -a | Include hidden files (dotfiles) | | --dirs-only | -d | Show only directories | | --depth <n> | -L | Limit tree depth | | --ignore <s> | -I | Ignore matching names (repeatable) | | --no-color | | Disable colored output | | --no-summary | | Hide the summary line | | --flat | | Flat list instead of tree | | --json | | Output as JSON | | --ascii | | Use ASCII characters instead of Unicode |

Behavior

• Color-coded — directories (blue), symlinks (cyan with → target), executables (green).
• Smart defaults — auto-skips node_modules, .git, .next, dist, build, vendor, __pycache__, .idea, .vscode, and more.
• Sorted output — directories listed before files, alphabetical within each group.
• Symlink-aware — displays symlink targets with → arrows.
• Plural-correct summary — "1 directory, 1 file" vs "3 directories, 12 files".
• Configurable — edit the CONFIG object for persistent preferences, or use CLI flags for one-off runs.

License

MIT