aixtract

A simple utility to prepare files for AI analysis by copying them with their directory structure encoded in the filename.

Description

aixtract reads a list of file paths from a .aixtract file and copies each file to a new directory, encoding the original path hierarchy into the filename using double underscores (__). For example, app/controllers/users_controller.rb becomes app__controllers__users_controller.rb.

This is particularly useful when preparing files to upload to AI assistants that don't support directory structures.

Installation

# Download the script
curl -o /usr/local/bin/aixtract https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourusername/aixtract/main/aixtract.rb

# Make it executable
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/aixtract

Usage

1. Create a .aixtract file in your project directory listing the files you want to process:

app/controllers/users_controller.rb
app/models/user.rb
config/routes.rb
# Lines starting with # are ignored

2. Run the script:

aixtract

The script will:

1. Create a new directory in your Downloads folder named project_name_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS
2. Copy each listed file to this directory, converting path separators to double underscores
3. Preserve file permissions and metadata
4. Show progress and a summary of processed files

Example

If your project structure looks like this:

myapp/
├── .aixtract
├── app/
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   └── users_controller.rb
│   └── models/
│       └── user.rb
└── config/
    └── routes.rb

And your .aixtract contains:

app/controllers/users_controller.rb
app/models/user.rb
config/routes.rb

Running aixtract will create:

~/Downloads/myapp_20250108_123456/
├── app__controllers__users_controller.rb
├── app__models__user.rb
└── config__routes.rb

Error Handling

The script will:

• Skip files that don't exist with a warning
• Skip empty lines and comments in .aixtract
• Exit with error if .aixtract file is not found
• Show clear error messages for any issues during copying

Requirements

• Ruby 2.0 or later
• Unix-like operating system (tested on macOS and Linux)

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.