Prompt Tower

Context and prompt management for your Coding Agents and CodeLLMs

Prompt Tower is a VS Code extension and is compatible with Cursor, Windsurf, and Google IDX. Install it.

A dedicated interface to select files/folders, include directory trees, customize formatting, and to generate the exact context your coding agents need to be more effective while saving you tokens.

Key Features ✨

• ✅ Effortless File Selection: Checkbox tree view for easy file/folder selection (Launch from the Activity Bar).
• 🚀 Instant Context Generation: Build & copy complex context to clipboard in one click.
• 🔧 Highly Configurable Output: Customize context format (XML, MD, etc.) with templates.
• 🌲 Project Tree Context: Optionally include a structured project overview in context (also configurable).
• 🔍 Robust Filtering: Respects .gitignore, .towerignore, and custom ignore rules to keep context lean.
• 📊 Live Token Count: Real-time token count estimate helps manage context size.
• 📝 Dedicated UI Panel: Manage prefix/suffix, preview, tokens & actions easily.
• 🔔 File Size Warnings: Get notified when selecting potentially oversized files.

Core Concepts

• File Tree View: Located in the Activity Bar section. This is where you select files/folders using checkboxes. It respects ignore files (.towerignore, .gitignore, promptTower.ignore, config).
• UI Panel: Opens as a separate tab. This is your control center:
  • Token Count: Shows the live estimated token count for selected files.
  • Prefix/Suffix: Add text before or after the generated file context blocks.
  • Actions: Buttons to generate context, copy it, clear selections, etc.
  • Preview: Shows what the generated context will look like based on your selections and formatting settings. Note: The preview becomes "invalidated" (orange border) if you change selections/prefix/suffix after generating it – click "Create Context" again to update.

Configuration Deep Dive

Fine-tune Prompt Tower via VS Code Settings (UI or settings.json). Access via File > Preferences > Settings and search for "Prompt Tower".

Ignoring Files (.towerignore, promptTower.useGitignore, promptTower.ignore)

Prompt Tower uses 3 ways to exclude files from LLM context. Exclusion is inclusive - every rule found across the three sources is used for exclusion.

• .gitignore - Recommended: True (the Default) - you likely never want to pass any of this to an LLM.
• .towerignore - Recommended: Per Project (You need to create this) - for reducing overall-project context (i.e. selecting all files).
• promptTower.ignore - IDE Setting (Workspace or User) - use as you see fit. The defaults are common lock files that typically aren't in .gitignore.

Control which files/folders are excluded from the Prompt Tower tree view:

• .towerignore File:
  • Create a .towerignore file in your workspace root (same format as .gitignore). Patterns here are also used for exclusion, alongside .gitignore and manual settings. This is useful for ignoring things specific to context generation but not general Git usage.
• promptTower.useGitignore: (Boolean, default: true)
  • If true, patterns from .gitignore in your workspace root are used for exclusion.
• promptTower.ignore: (Array of strings, default: ["package-lock.json", "yarn.lock", ...])
  • A manual list of file/folder names or simple patterns to always ignore, in addition to .gitignore / .towerignore.
  • Standard ignores like .git, node_modules, .vscode, dist, out are included by default unless overridden by complex configurations.

Example (settings.json):

{
  "promptTower.useGitignore": true,
  "promptTower.ignore": [
    "package-lock.json", // Prompt Tower defaults to ignore lock files
    "yarn.lock",
    "poetry.lock",
    "Gemfile.lock"
    // The default also includes many common binary files (documents, images, videos, audio, etc.)
  ]
}

Output Formatting (promptTower.outputFormat)

This is the core of customization. Control exactly how the selected files and project tree are formatted.

• blockTemplate: (String)

  • Defines the format for each selected file's content.
  • Placeholders:
    • {fileContent}: The actual content of the file.
    • {rawFilePath}: The workspace-relative path (e.g., /src/utils/helpers.ts). Ensures leading slash and uses forward slashes.
    • {fileNameWithExtension}: The file name including extension (e.g., helpers.ts).
    • {fileName}: File name without extension (e.g., helpers).
    • {fileExtension}: The file extension (e.g., .ts).
    • {fullPath}: The absolute path on your disk.
  • Default (XML-like):

    "promptTower.outputFormat.blockTemplate": "<file name=\"{fileNameWithExtension}\" path=\"{rawFilePath}\">\n{fileContent}\n</file>"
    

  • Example (Markdown):

    "promptTower.outputFormat.blockTemplate": "``` {fileExtension}\n# Path: {rawFilePath}\n\n{fileContent}\n```"
    

• blockSeparator: (String, default: \n)

  • The string inserted between each formatted file block.

• projectTreeFormat: (Object)

  • Controls the optional project tree block.
  • enabled: (Boolean, default: true) Include the project tree block?
  • type: (String, default: "fullFilesAndDirectories")
    • "fullFilesAndDirectories": Show all non-ignored files and folders in the workspace.
    • "fullDirectoriesOnly": Show all non-ignored directories in the workspace.
    • "selectedFilesOnly": Only include the selected files in the tree structure.
  • showFileSize: (Boolean, default: true) Display file sizes in the tree (ignored if type is "fullDirectoriesOnly").
  • template: (String, default: "<project_tree>\n{projectTree}\n</project_tree>\n") Wrapper for the generated tree. Use {projectTree} as the placeholder.

• wrapperFormat: (Object | null, default: Object)

  • Controls the overall wrapper around the entire output (tree + file blocks). Set to null to disable wrapping entirely.
  • template: (String) The wrapper template.
  • Placeholders:
    • {treeBlock}: Where the formatted projectTreeFormat.template (if enabled) is inserted.
    • {blocks}: Where the combined, separated file blocks (using blockTemplate) are inserted.
    • {timestamp}: ISO timestamp of generation (replaces 2025-03-30T23:18:01.031Z placeholder in default).
    • {fileCount}: Number of files included (replaces 6 placeholder in default).
    • {workspaceRoot}: Absolute path to the workspace root (replaces /Users/ramos/prompt-tower placeholder in default).
  • Default (XML-like):

    "promptTower.outputFormat.wrapperFormat": {
      "template": "<context>\n{treeBlock}<project_files>\n{blocks}\n</project_files>\n</context>"
    }
    

Other Settings

• promptTower.maxFileSizeWarningKB: (Number, default: 500) Show a warning prompt if a selected file exceeds this size in KB.

Why Prompt Tower?

Building effective prompts for code-focused LLMs often requires providing substantial context – multiple files, directory structures, etc. Doing this manually is:

1. Tedious: Copy-pasting file contents one by one is slow.
2. Error-Prone: Easy to miss files, format incorrectly, or paste outdated code.
3. Inefficient: Hard to quickly iterate on different context combinations.

Prompt Tower streamlines this entire process, letting you focus on the prompt itself, not the plumbing of context assembly.

Getting Started

1. Install: Search for "Prompt Tower" in the VS Code Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X) and click Install.
2. Open: Click the Prompt Tower icon in the Activity Bar (it looks like a tower of blocks).
3. Select: Use the checkboxes in the "Prompt Tower" file tree view to select the files and folders you want to include as context.
4. Configure (Optional): Use the "Prompt Tower UI" panel to add a prefix or suffix to your prompt.
5. Generate:
   • Click "Create Context, Copy to Clipboard" in the UI Panel (or use the Copy Context to Clipboard command/icon) to generate the context and copy it.
   • Click "Create Context" to generate and view it in the preview area without copying.
6. Paste: Paste the generated context into your LLM chat/interface.

Available Commands (Command Palette: Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P)

• Prompt Tower: Show Prompt Tower UI: Opens the main UI panel.
• Prompt Tower: Copy Context to Clipboard: Generates context from selected files and copies it.
• Prompt Tower: Refresh File List: Reloads the file tree view.
• Prompt Tower: Toggle All Files: Checks/unchecks all files in the tree view.
• Prompt Tower: Clear All Selections: Unchecks all files.
• Prompt Tower: Reset all: Clears selections and resets prefix/suffix in the UI panel.

Contributing & Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

Contributions are welcome!

License

This extension is licensed under the AGPL-3.0 License. Please review the license before contributing or using the code in other projects. See the LICENSE file for details. (Note: AGPL has specific implications regarding distribution and modification).

Made by Michael Ramos (@backnotprop).