File Filtering

Smart Defaults

promptext automatically excludes common non-source files:

• Dependencies: node_modules/, vendor/, bower_components/
• Build Output: dist/, build/, out/, target/
• Version Control: .git/, .svn/, .hg/
• IDE Files: .idea/, .vscode/, *.sublime-*
• Cache: __pycache__/, .sass-cache/, .npm/
• Logs: logs/, *.log, tmp/

Disable default rules:

promptext -u=false  # Only use explicit excludes

Binary Detection

Automatically skips binary files by detecting:

• Null bytes in first 512 bytes
• Invalid UTF-8 encoding

No need to specify binary extensions — images, executables, and archives are automatically excluded.

Custom Patterns

Pattern Types

Directory matching:

excludes:
  - test/           # Any 'test' directory
  - internal/tmp/   # Specific path

Wildcards:

excludes:
  - "*.test.go"     # Test files
  - ".aider*"       # Generated files

Exact matches:

excludes:
  - config.json     # Specific file
  - src/constants.go # Exact path

Configuration

Config file:

.promptext.yml

excludes:
  - test/
  - "*.generated.*"
  - docs/private/

Command line:

promptext -x "test/,*.generated.*,docs/private/"

GitIgnore Integration

Automatically respects .gitignore patterns. Disable with:

promptext -g=false

Filter Priority

1. Default patterns (if enabled)
2. GitIgnore patterns (if enabled)
3. Custom excludes (config + command line)

All patterns are combined and deduplicated for optimal performance.