Repository Context Exporter

A Python utility for exporting source repositories into compact Markdown context files for LLM prompting.

The tool is designed for workflows where large codebases cannot be pasted into a prompt directly, but a structured and representative context export is still useful. It scans a repository, filters files using built-in ignore patterns, generates a directory tree, and writes the selected source files into a small number of Markdown bundles.

Why this exists

When working with LLMs on non-trivial software projects, raw prompting quickly runs into context and upload limits. This script helps create a cleaner project snapshot by packaging the most relevant textual source files into prompt-friendly Markdown files.

Features

• recursively scans a repository
• exports source files into Markdown bundles
• generates a separate directory tree file
• uses built-in gitignore-like ignore patterns
• skips common binary files and lockfiles
• keeps source files intact instead of splitting them across outputs
• balances content across a limited number of output files
• designed for practical LLM prompting workflows

Typical Usage

python repo_context_exporter.py .
python repo_context_exporter.py /path/to/repo --output-dir llm-context

Output

The script generates:

• one Markdown file containing the directory tree
• multiple Markdown files containing source code blocks
• a compact context package intended for LLM prompting

How it works

The exporter:

• scans the repository recursively
• filters files based on ignore patterns
• excludes common binary assets and generated artifacts
• emits a Markdown directory tree
• writes source files into balanced Markdown bundles

Use Case

This tool is especially useful when you want to:

• give an LLM a better overview of a repository
• preserve project structure in prompts
• avoid manually copy-pasting many files
• create reusable prompt context snapshots

Example Output

An example export generated from the open-source project pallets/click can be found at examples/pallets_click.

Notes

This project is intended as a lightweight developer utility and workflow helper. It prioritizes practical usefulness and portability over full repository serialization.

Author

Luka Petrovic