Learn Context Filtering with Code2Prompt

Tutorial Overview

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the glob pattern tool in code2prompt CLI to filter and manage files based on include and exclude patterns. It will drive you through a small playground to practice different filtering scenarios.

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Prerequisites

Ensure you have code2prompt installed. If you haven’t installed it yet, refer to the

Installation Guide

Glob patterns work similarly to tools like tree or grep, providing powerful filtering capabilities. If you never heard about what is a glob pattern, check out the

Detailed Glob Pattern Explanation

for more informations.

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Setting Up the Environment

To practice with glob patterns, let’s create a sample folder structure with some files as a playground.

Generate Test Structure

Run this script to set up a temporary directory structure

#!/bin/bash

# Create base directory
mkdir -p test_dir/{lowercase,uppercase,.secret}

# Create files in the structure
echo "content foo.py" > "test_dir/lowercase/foo.py"
echo "content bar.py" > "test_dir/lowercase/bar.py"
echo "content baz.py" > "test_dir/lowercase/baz.py"
echo "content qux.txt" > "test_dir/lowercase/qux.txt"
echo "content corge.txt" > "test_dir/lowercase/corge.txt"
echo "content grault.txt" > "test_dir/lowercase/grault.txt"

echo "CONTENT FOO.py" > "test_dir/uppercase/FOO.PY"
echo "CONTENT BAR.py" > "test_dir/uppercase/BAR.PY"
echo "CONTENT BAZ.py" > "test_dir/uppercase/BAZ.PY"
echo "CONTENT QUX.txt" > "test_dir/uppercase/QUX.TXT"
echo "CONTENT CORGE.txt" > "test_dir/uppercase/CORGE.TXT"
echo "CONTENT GRAULT.txt" > "test_dir/uppercase/GRAULT.TXT"

echo "top secret" > "test_dir/.secret/secret.txt"

To clean up the structure later, run:

rm -rf test_dir

It will create the following directory structure:

• Directorytest_dir

  • Directorylowercase

    • foo.py
    • bar.py
    • baz.py
    • qux.txt
    • corge.txt
    • grault.txt
  • Directoryuppercase

    • FOO.py
    • BAR.py
    • BAZ.py
    • QUX.txt
    • CORGE.txt
    • GRAULT.txt
  • Directory.secret

    • secret.txt

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General Usage of code2prompt

By default, code2prompt includes all files in the specified directory respecting the .gitignore.

Filtering Files with Include and Exclude Patterns

The Include and Exclude options allow you to filter files dynamically based on glob patterns.

Glob patterns allow you to specify rules for filtering files and directories.

• Include Patterns (--include or -i): Specify files and directories you want to include.
• Exclude Patterns (--exclude or -e): Specify files and directories you want to exclude.

If you want to learn more about the internals you can check out the

How the Glob Pattern Tool Works

Case 1: Default Behavior (No Filters)

Command:

code2prompt test_dir

Result

All files are included:

• lowercase/foo.py
• lowercase/bar.py …
• uppercase/FOO.py …
• .secret/secret.txt

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Case 2: Exclude Specific File Types

Exclude .txt or .md files:

code2prompt test_dir --exclude="*.txt,*.md"

Result

Excluded:

• All .txt or .md files

Included:

• lowercase/foo.py
• lowercase/bar.py
• uppercase/FOO.py

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Case 3: Include Specific File Types

Include only Python files:

code2prompt test_dir --include="*.py"

Result

Included:

• All .py files

Excluded:

• .secret/secret.txt

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Case 4: Include and Exclude with Priority

Include .py files but exclude files in the uppercase folder:

code2prompt test_dir --include="*.py" --exclude="**/uppercase/*" --include-priority=true

Result

Included:

• All lowercase/1 files having .py extension

Excluded:

• All uppercase files
• .secret/secret.txt

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Case 5: Exclude Specific Directory

Exclude the uppercase directory:

code2prompt test_dir --exclude "**/uppercase*"

or with short syntax:

code2prompt test_dir -e "uppercase*"

Result

Included:

• All files in lowercase and .secret

Excluded:

• All files in uppercase

Summary

The glob pattern tool in code2prompt allows you to filter files and directories effectively using:

• --include for specifying files to include
• --exclude for files to exclude
• --include-priority for resolving conflicts between patterns

To practice, set up the sample directory, try out the commands, and see how the tool filters files dynamically.