ccopy

Interactive TUI file picker that concatenates selected files and copies them to the clipboard — built for pasting codebase context into LLM chats.

Install

Download a prebuilt binary for macOS, Linux, or Windows from the latest release.

Or with Go:

go install github.com/abhignan-rakshith/ccopy/cmd/ccopy@latest

From source:

git clone https://github.com/abhignan-rakshith/ccopy
cd ccopy
make install

Usage

ccopy                        # pick files in the current directory
ccopy ~/projects/api         # pick in a specific directory
ccopy --format xml           # XML output (nice for Claude)
ccopy --format markdown      # fenced code blocks with language hints
ccopy --no-gitignore         # don't respect .gitignore
ccopy --max-size 5MB         # raise the large-file threshold
ccopy --dry-run              # print to stdout instead of clipboard

Keybindings

Key	Action
↑/↓ or j/k	move cursor
←/→ or h/l	collapse / expand directory
space	toggle selection (dir = select all under it)
a / n / i	select all / clear / invert
/	filter tree (type to narrow, esc to cancel)
enter	copy selected files to clipboard and exit
q / esc	quit without copying
?	toggle help overlay

Output formats

• tail (default) — ==> path <== header per file, matching tail -n +1 file1 file2 ...
• markdown — ## path heading + fenced code block with a language hint from the extension
• xml — <file path="...">...</file> — recommended for Claude

Exclusions

Skipped by default: .git, node_modules, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .DS_Store, dist, build, target, plus anything matched by a .gitignore in the walked tree.

Binary files (detected via null byte in the first 512 bytes) appear dimmed and cannot be selected. Files over 1 MB appear highlighted and prompt for confirmation.

Configuration

Overrides live in ~/.config/ccopy/config.toml — all keys optional:

format = "xml"
max_file_size = 2097152          # 2 MiB
respect_gitignore = true
exclude_patterns = [".git", "node_modules", "target", "vendor"]

Clipboard support

• macOS — works out of the box (pbcopy)
• Linux — requires xclip, xsel, or wl-copy
• Windows — works out of the box

Falls back to stdout if the clipboard is unavailable.

Development

make test    # run all unit tests
make build   # build into ./bin/ccopy
make vet     # run go vet
make fmt     # format with gofmt

Layout:

cmd/ccopy/          entrypoint
internal/tree/      fs walker + gitignore + binary detection
internal/selection/ selection set + tri-state dir logic
internal/formatter/ tail / markdown / xml output
internal/tui/       Bubble Tea model/update/view
internal/config/    TOML loader with defaults

Record a demo

brew install charmbracelet/tap/vhs
vhs demo.tape

License

MIT