📁 make-folder-txt

Instantly dump your entire project into a single, readable .txt file.

Perfect for sharing your codebase with AI tools, teammates, or code reviewers — without zipping files or giving repo access.

Installation · Usage · Help · Copy to Clipboard · Force Include Everything · File Size Control · Output Splitting · Output Format · What Gets Skipped · Contributing

✨ Why make-folder-txt?

Ever needed to share your entire project with ChatGPT, Claude, or a teammate — but copy-pasting every file one by one is painful? make-folder-txt solves that in one command.

• ✅ Run it from any project directory — no arguments needed
• ✅ Built-in help system with --help flag
• ✅ File size control with --skip-large and --no-skip
• ✅ Output splitting by folders, files, or size
• ✅ Copy to clipboard with --copy flag
• ✅ Force include everything with --force flag
• ✅ Generates a clean folder tree + every file's content
• ✅ .txtignore support (works like .gitignore)
• ✅ Automatically skips node_modules, binaries, and junk files
• ✅ Zero dependencies — pure Node.js
• ✅ Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux

📦 Installation

Install globally once, use anywhere:

npm install -g make-folder-txt

🚀 Usage

Navigate into your project folder and run:

cd my-project
make-folder-txt

That's it. A my-project.txt file will be created in the same directory.

📖 Get Help

make-folder-txt --help      # Show all options and examples
make-folder-txt -h          # Short version of help
make-folder-txt --version   # Show version info
make-folder-txt -v          # Short version of version

📋 Copy to Clipboard

make-folder-txt --copy      # Generate output and copy to clipboard
make-folder-txt --copy --ignore-folder node_modules  # Copy filtered output

The --copy flag automatically copies the generated output to your system clipboard, making it easy to paste directly into AI tools, emails, or documents. Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux (requires xclip or xsel on Linux).

🔥 Force Include Everything

make-folder-txt --force      # Include everything (overrides all ignore patterns)
make-folder-txt --force --copy  # Include everything and copy to clipboard

The --force flag overrides all ignore patterns and includes:

• node_modules and other ignored folders
• Binary files (images, executables, etc.)
• Large files (no 500 KB limit)
• Files in .txtignore
• System files and other normally skipped content

Use this when you need a complete, unfiltered dump of your entire project.

📏 File Size Control

make-folder-txt --skip-large 400KB     # Skip files larger than 400KB
make-folder-txt --skip-large 5GB       # Skip files larger than 5GB
make-folder-txt --skip-large 1.5MB     # Skip files larger than 1.5MB
make-folder-txt --no-skip               # Include all files regardless of size

Default behavior: Files larger than 500KB are skipped by default.

Supported size units:

• B - Bytes
• KB - Kilobytes (1024 bytes)
• MB - Megabytes (1024 KB)
• GB - Gigabytes (1024 MB)
• TB - Terabytes (1024 GB)

Examples:

# More restrictive - skip anything over 100KB
make-folder-txt --skip-large 100KB

# More permissive - allow files up to 10MB
make-folder-txt --skip-large 10MB

# Include everything - no size limits
make-folder-txt --no-skip

# Combine with other options
make-folder-txt --skip-large 2MB --ignore-folder node_modules

Size format: Accepts decimal numbers (e.g., 1.5MB, 0.5GB) and various units.

📂 Output Splitting

make-folder-txt --split-method folder    # Split by folders
make-folder-txt --split-method file      # Split by files  
make-folder-txt --split-method size --split-size 5MB  # Split by file size

Split Methods:

• folder - Creates separate files for each folder
• file - Creates separate files for each individual file
• size - Splits output when content exceeds specified size

Examples:

# Split by folders - creates folder-name.txt for each folder
make-folder-txt --split-method folder

# Split by files - creates filename.txt for each file
make-folder-txt --split-method file

# Split by size - creates part-1.txt, part-2.txt, etc.
make-folder-txt --split-method size --split-size 5MB

# Combine with other options
make-folder-txt --split-method size --split-size 2MB --ignore-folder node_modules

Output Files:

• Folder method: projectname-foldername.txt
• File method: projectname-filename.txt
• Size method: projectname-part-1.txt, projectname-part-2.txt, etc.

Note: Splitting is not compatible with --copy flag.

Ignore specific folders/files by name:

make-folder-txt --ignore-folder examples extensions docs
make-folder-txt -ifo examples extensions docs  # shorthand
make-folder-txt --ignore-folder examples extensions "docs and explaination"
make-folder-txt --ignore-folder examples extensions docs --ignore-file LICENSE
make-folder-txt --ignore-file .env .env.local secrets.txt
make-folder-txt -ifi .env .env.local secrets.txt  # shorthand

Use a .txtignore file (works like .gitignore):

# Create a .txtignore file in your project root
echo "node_modules/" > .txtignore
echo "*.log" >> .txtignore
echo ".env" >> .txtignore
echo "coverage/" >> .txtignore

# The tool will automatically read and respect .txtignore patterns
make-folder-txt

The .txtignore file supports:

• File and folder names (one per line)
• Wildcard patterns (*.log, temp-*)
• Comments (lines starting with #)
• Folder patterns with trailing slash (docs/)

Include only specific folders/files by name (everything else is ignored):

make-folder-txt --only-folder src docs
make-folder-txt -ofo src docs  # shorthand
make-folder-txt --only-file package.json README.md
make-folder-txt -ofi package.json README.md  # shorthand
make-folder-txt --only-folder src --only-file package.json

🎯 Real World Examples

Sharing with an AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.):

cd "C:\Web Development\my-app\backend"
make-folder-txt
# → backend.txt created, ready to paste into any AI chat

On macOS / Linux:

cd /home/user/projects/my-app
make-folder-txt
# → my-app.txt created

📄 Output Format

The generated .txt file is structured in two clear sections:

================================================================================
START OF FOLDER: my-project
================================================================================

================================================================================
PROJECT STRUCTURE
================================================================================
Root: C:\Web Development\my-project

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   └── userController.js
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── User.js
│   └── index.js
├── node_modules/  [skipped]
├── package.json
└── README.md

Total files: 5

================================================================================
FILE CONTENTS
================================================================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILE: /src/index.js
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
const express = require('express');
...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILE: /package.json
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{
  "name": "my-project",
  ...
}

================================================================================
END OF FOLDER: my-project
================================================================================

🚫 What Gets Skipped

The tool is smart about what it ignores so your output stays clean and readable.

| Category | Details | | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | 📁 Folders | node_modules, .git, .next, dist, build, .cache | | 🖼️ Binary files | Images (.png, .jpg, .gif...), fonts, videos, executables | | 📦 Archives | .zip, .tar, .gz, .rar, .7z | | 🔤 Font files | .woff, .woff2, .ttf, .eot, .otf | | 📋 Lock files | package-lock.json, yarn.lock | | 📏 Large files | Any file over 500 KB | | 🗑️ System files | .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, desktop.ini | | 📄 Output file | The generated foldername.txt file (to avoid infinite loops) | | 📝 .txtignore | Any files/folders specified in .txtignore file |

Binary and skipped files are noted in the output as [binary / skipped] so you always know what was omitted.

🛠️ Requirements

• Node.js v14.0.0 or higher
• No other dependencies

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add my feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

👤 Author

Muhammad Saad Amin

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — feel free to use it in personal and commercial projects.

If this tool saved you time, consider giving it a ⭐ on npm!