prompt-snapshot: A CLI Tool That Feeds Your Project Context to AI Agents

If you use AI coding agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, or any of the terminal-based agents — you’ve probably done this dance:

Copy your project tree, then open a few key files, copy their contents, paste everything into a prompt, and hope the agent has enough context.

It works, but it’s tedious, error-prone, and you repeat it every time. I got tired of it and built prompt-snapshot.

What is prompt-snapshot?

prompt-snapshot is a zero-dependency Python CLI that scans your project directory and generates a single markdown document containing:

• A file tree (with sizes and last-modified dates)
• The contents of every relevant text file
• All properly formatted, ready to paste into any AI agent prompt

How it works

# Basic usage — snapshot the current directory
python prompt-snapshot.py

# Snapshot a specific project
python prompt-snapshot.py ~/projects/my-app -o snapshot.md

# Customize which files to include
python prompt-snapshot.py . -e .py,.js,.ts,.md -x build

# Skip the tree or file contents
python prompt-snapshot.py . --no-tree

The output looks like this:

# Project: my-app

## File Tree

my-app/ ├── src/main.py (12.3 KB, 2026-07-19) ├── src/utils.py (4.1 KB, 2026-07-18) ├── tests/test_main.py (2.7 KB, 2026-07-19) └── README.md (1.5 KB, 2026-07-15)

## File Contents

### src/main.py
```python
def main():
    print("Hello, world!")

README.md

# My App
...

## Why I built it

I use **my-agent** daily for coding, and I kept running into the same problem: even with persistent memory, fresh context matters. When I start a new task or switch projects, I need the agent to understand the full picture — not just what it remembers from last session.

prompt-snapshot fills that gap. It's the quickest way to get your project's full context into any AI agent's prompt in a single paste.

## Key features

- **Zero external dependencies** — pure Python stdlib. Works everywhere Python 3.8+ runs
- **`.gitignore`-aware** — respects your existing ignore rules automatically
- **Smart defaults** — skips binaries, `.git/`, `node_modules/`, `__pycache__/`, and other noise
- **Customizable** — filter by extension, exclude directories, cap file sizes
- **Human-readable output** — markdown that's easy to read, paste, and share

## Get it

The repo is on GitHub: [github.com/vikasudasi/prompt-snapshot](https://github.com/vikasudasi/prompt-snapshot)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/vikasudasi/prompt-snapshot.git
cd prompt-snapshot
python prompt-snapshot.py .

No install needed — just clone and run. Python 3.8+ required.

What’s next

• pip install support — once it’s on PyPI
• Glob-based file selection — for more granular control
• Output formats — JSON, YAML, and plain text options
• Integration with my-agent — auto-snapshot before each task

This is part of my daily workflow: research a trend → identify a gap → build something → share it. If you have ideas for what to build next, let me know.