Promptfold

Copy files and Git changes as XML, Markdown or plain text for LLM prompts, with an estimate of the tokens they use. No telemetry, no network access.

Features

• Output formats: XML, Markdown or plain text, with the format switchable by clicking the status bar item.
• Copy and save: copy to the clipboard, Save as…, Copy as File…, Preview and Show details.
• Flexible selection: the whole project, by extension, open files, or a folder or file from Explorer.
• Git changes: uncommitted, staged, one commit, or the current branch against a base, as a diff before the files.
• Several repositories: a launcher folder with many repositories and submodules, each with its branch.
• Ignored folders on demand: check a folder from .gitignore to include it, after one confirmation.
• Secret protection: credentials and keys are never included, promptfold.allowSensitive is the explicit way around it, and links that leave the workspace are skipped.
• Generated files: lockfiles and minified files stay out of bulk selection.
• Token estimate: status bar, tooltips and details, with an optional promptfold.tokenBudget warning.
• Structure tree: the selected files laid out as a tree at the top of the prompt.
• Whitespace compaction: optional trimming of file contents.
• Selection history: move back and forth between previous selections.
• Ignore rules: .gitignore plus .promptignore, which controls only what goes into a prompt. A ! rule cannot bring back a file while its parent directory stays excluded.
• System message: an optional message at the top of the prompt.
• Shortcuts: Refresh, Copy, Clear selection and Copy open files, all remappable and active while the Promptfold view has focus.

Installation

Install Promptfold from the Visual Studio Marketplace or from Open VSX: search for "Promptfold" in the Extensions view.

To install a .vsix instead:

1. Download the .vsix file.
2. In VS Code, press Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS) to open the Command Palette.
3. Type Extensions: Install from VSIX... and select the command.
4. Browse to the .vsix file and install.

Usage

Open Promptfold View:

• Click on the Promptfold icon in the Activity Bar to open the Promptfold view.

Select the whole project:

• Use Select in the view title bar, then Whole project. Ignored folders stay out. A large selection asks before copying and can copy only what fits.

Select by extension:

• Use Select in the view title bar, then By extension…, or right-click a folder in the tree or in Explorer and choose By extension….
• Matching uses the file suffix, so .blade.php matches foo.blade.php and php also matches that file. .env is the suffix of the dotfile. A file with no dot matches only the no-extension choice.

Include an ignored folder:

• Check a folder listed in .gitignore. Confirm once to include its files. .promptignore, generated folders, binaries, and size limits still win. Nested node_modules/ stays out.

Select Files:

• Browse through your workspace's file tree.
• Check the boxes next to the files you want to copy.

Copy:

• Click Copy in the view title bar, or press the shortcut (see Keyboard shortcuts).
• Copy open files (in the … menu) copies the editors you have open instead of the tree selection.

Save Prompt As:

• Click Save as… in the view's title bar or the Command Palette (Promptfold: Save as…).
• Select the destination file path and format (.xml, .md, or .txt).
• Once saved, open the resulting file directly from the completion notification.

Refresh:

• Choose Refresh in the … menu of the view title bar, or press the shortcut.

Clear selection:

• Click Clear selection in the view title bar, or press the shortcut.

System message:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+, or Cmd+, on macOS).
2. Search for promptfold.systemMessage, or go to Extensions > Promptfold.
3. Enter your message in the System Message field.
4. When you copy, the message goes at the top of the output. If the field is empty, no system message is included.

Keyboard shortcuts

These shortcuts work only while the Promptfold view has focus.

To change one, open Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+K Ctrl+S, or Cmd+K Cmd+S on macOS), search for "Promptfold", and assign a new key combination.

Tokens and size

Promptfold estimates the size of a prompt as characters divided by four. The figure is approximate, so it shows as ~12.3k tokens, never as an exact count.

• Status bar. Shows the file count and the estimated tokens of the current selection (calculated from file sizes). When promptfold.tokenBudget is above 0 and the selection goes over it, the item turns to a warning color.
• Details. After a copy, "Show details" reports the estimate for the full prompt (files, tree, diffs and wrapper) and lists the ten heaviest files.
• Tooltip. Hover a file in the tree to see its size and estimated tokens.
• promptfold.tokenBudget. Warns before copying a prompt estimated above this many tokens. Default 0 (off). The warning offers "Copy anyway" and "Do not ask again in this workspace". If the selection also goes over promptfold.maxTotalBytes, only the size warning shows.
• promptfold.includeGenerated. Lockfiles (package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml, composer.lock, Cargo.lock, go.sum and similar) and *.min.js, *.min.css and *.map stay out when you select a folder, the whole project, an extension or Git changes. A file you check on its own is always included. Their diffs are replaced with a "diff omitted" mark. Default false.
• promptfold.includeTree. Adds the tree of the selected files before the diffs (<tree> in XML, ## Structure in Markdown, === TREE === in plain text). It counts toward promptfold.maxTotalBytes and the estimate. A file cut by that limit is not listed. Default true.
• promptfold.compactWhitespace. Converts CRLF to LF, strips trailing spaces and shrinks runs of two or more blank lines to one, in file contents only. Indentation and diffs are never touched. Markdown hard line breaks (two trailing spaces) are lost. Default false.

Example Output

Both examples come from npm run compile && node scripts/readme-example.mjs <xml|markdown>, run over the test fixture with the tree on and one Git change.

XML:

<files><systemMessage><![CDATA[Review these changes and suggest fixes.]]></systemMessage><tree><![CDATA[web/
  docs/
    mi archivo.md
  src/
    app.ts]]></tree><changes repo="web" scope="uncommitted"><change path="web/docs/mi archivo.md" status="modified"><![CDATA[diff --git a/docs/mi archivo.md b/docs/mi archivo.md
index 4387e04..467b83a 100644
--- a/docs/mi archivo.md
+++ b/docs/mi archivo.md
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # Guía

-Primera versión.
+Segunda versión con acción.]]></change></changes><file name="web/docs/mi archivo.md"><![CDATA[# Guía

Segunda versión con acción.
]]></file><file name="web/src/app.ts"><![CDATA[export const app = 'web';
]]></file></files>

Markdown:

Review these changes and suggest fixes.

## Structure

```text
web/
  docs/
    mi archivo.md
  src/
    app.ts
```

## Git changes — web (uncommitted, — → HEAD)

### web/docs/mi archivo.md (modified)

```diff
diff --git a/docs/mi archivo.md b/docs/mi archivo.md
index 4387e04..467b83a 100644
--- a/docs/mi archivo.md
+++ b/docs/mi archivo.md
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # Guía

-Primera versión.
+Segunda versión con acción.
```

### web/docs/mi archivo.md

```markdown
# Guía

Segunda versión con acción.
```

### web/src/app.ts

```ts
export const app = 'web';
```

Git changes and multiple repositories

A launcher folder can hold several repositories. Promptfold lists each repository root with its branch, and a submodule with its branch or short commit. A worktree inside an ignored folder, such as launcher/web/.worktrees/feature-structure-01, is not listed.

Select Git changes from the view title or from a repository root:

• Uncommitted changes: staged, working tree, and untracked files.
• Staged changes only.
• One commit.
• The current branch against a base. The picker proposes the upstream, dev, or main when those exist.

With more than one repository, pick which ones to include. Then add to the selection or replace it. Deleted and renamed paths stay in the diff and are not checked in the tree.

promptfold.diffMode controls the prompt:

• diffAndFiles puts a <changes> block before the full <file> entries. This is the default.
• diffOnly copies the diff and not the full files.
• filesOnly copies the files and not the diff.

<files>
  <changes repo="launcher/api" scope="branch" base="dev" head="feature/example">
    <change path="launcher/api/app/Foo.php" status="modified"><![CDATA[unified diff]]></change>
  </changes>
  <file name="launcher/api/app/Foo.php"><![CDATA[full file]]></file>
</files>

A submodule pointer change uses status="submodule" with from and to.

Recommended Workflow

Copy the selected files into the LLM, then edit the project yourself from the reply.

1. Open the Files view and select the files that belong in the prompt.
2. Copy them with the button or the keyboard shortcut.
3. Paste that prompt into the LLM and submit.
4. Apply the reply in the editor.
5. Repeat.

Contributing

Architecture notes and the release process are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Credits

Promptfold is based on Files2Prompt by Thomas McKanna, released under the MIT license. See LICENSE.md.