Gitingest

Gitingest is a Ruby gem that fetches files from a GitHub repository and generates a consolidated text prompt, which can be used as input for large language models, documentation generation, or other purposes.

gem install gitingest

git clone https://github.com/davidesantangelo/gitingest.git
cd gitingest
bundle install
bundle exec rake install

# Basic usage (public repository)
gitingest --repository user/repo 

# With GitHub token for private repositories
gitingest --repository user/repo --token YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN

# Specify a custom output file
gitingest --repository user/repo --output my_prompt.txt

# Specify a different branch
gitingest --repository user/repo --branch develop

# Exclude additional patterns
gitingest --repository user/repo --exclude "*.md,docs/"

# Control the number of threads
gitingest --repository user/repo -T 4

# Set thread pool shutdown timeout
gitingest --repository user/repo -W 120

# Combine threading options
gitingest --repository user/repo -T 8 -W 90

# Quiet mode
gitingest --repository user/repo --quiet

# Verbose mode
gitingest --repository user/repo --verbose

• -r, --repository REPO: GitHub repository (username/repo) [Required]
• -t, --token TOKEN: GitHub personal access token [Optional but recommended]
• -o, --output FILE: Output file for the prompt [Default: reponame_prompt.txt]
• -e, --exclude PATTERN: File patterns to exclude (comma separated)
• -b, --branch BRANCH: Repository branch [Default: main]
• -T, --threads COUNT: Number of concurrent threads [Default: auto-detected]
• -W, --thread-timeout SECONDS: Thread pool shutdown timeout [Default: 60]
• -q, --quiet: Reduce logging to errors only
• -v, --verbose: Increase logging verbosity
• -h, --help: Show help message

require "gitingest"

# Basic usage - write to a file
generator = Gitingest::Generator.new(
  repository: "user/repo",
  token: "YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN" # optional
)

# Run the full workflow (fetch repository and generate file)
generator.run

# OR generate file only (if you need the output path)
output_path = generator.generate_file

# Get content as a string (for in-memory processing)
content = generator.generate_prompt

# With custom options
generator = Gitingest::Generator.new(
  repository: "user/repo",
  token: "YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN",
  output_file: "my_prompt.txt",
  branch: "develop",
  exclude: ["*.md", "docs/"], 
  threads: 4,              # control concurrency
  thread_timeout: 120,     # custom thread timeout
  quiet: true              # or verbose: true
)

# With custom logger
custom_logger = Logger.new("gitingest.log")
generator = Gitingest::Generator.new(
  repository: "user/repo",
  logger: custom_logger
)

• Fetches all files from a GitHub repository based on the given branch
• Automatically excludes common binary files and system files by default
• Allows custom exclusion patterns for specific file extensions or directories
• Uses concurrent processing for faster downloads
• Handles GitHub API rate limiting with automatic retry
• Generates a clean, formatted output file with file paths and content

By default, the generator excludes files and directories commonly ignored in repositories, such as:

• Version control files (.git/, .svn/)
• System files (.DS_Store, Thumbs.db)
• Log files (*.log, *.bak)
• Images and media files (*.png, *.jpg, *.mp3)
• Archives (*.zip, *.tar.gz)
• Dependency directories (node_modules/, vendor/)
• Compiled and binary files (*.pyc, *.class, *.exe)

• To prevent memory overload, only the first 1000 files will be processed
• API requests are subject to GitHub limits (60 requests/hour without token, 5000 requests/hour with token)
• Private repositories require a GitHub personal access token

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/davidesantangelo/gitingest.

Inspired by cyclotruc/gitingest.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.