CLI tool that transforms Git repositories into prompt-friendly text digests for LLMs, featuring web access, browser extensions, Python SDK, and private repo support.

Project Overview#

Gitingest is an open-source tool designed to bridge the context gap for LLMs when handling code tasks. It parses local directories or GitHub repositories to generate a single text file containing the directory tree and code content, automatically estimating token count.

Project Info:

Maintainer: Filip Christiansen (cyclotruc)
Organization: coderamp-labs
Latest Release: v0.3.1 (July 2025)
Development Status: Alpha (3)
Contributors: 59+

Core Capabilities#

Input Sources#

Local Directory: Direct parsing of local file system paths
GitHub URL: Support for repo addresses, specific branches, tags, commits, or subdirectory URLs
Private Repositories: Access via GitHub Personal Access Token (--token)
Git Submodules: Include submodule content via --include-submodules

Output Features#

Structured Summary: Project statistics (file count, size) and directory tree
Prompt Optimization: Output format designed for LLM context windows
Token Estimation: Uses tiktoken to estimate token consumption
Flexible Output: Default to digest.txt, supports custom filenames or STDOUT

Usage Methods#

Command Line (CLI)#

# Install
pip install gitingest
# Or recommended via pipx
pipx install gitingest

# Basic usage
gitingest /path/to/directory
gitingest https://github.com/coderamp-labs/gitingest

# Output to console
gitingest https://github.com/username/repo -o -

# Access private repo
gitingest https://github.com/username/private-repo --token ghp_xxxx

Python SDK#

from gitingest import ingest, ingest_async

# Sync call
summary, tree, content = ingest("path/to/dir")

# Async call
result = await ingest_async("path/to/directory")

Web Interface#

Direct access via https://gitingest.com/owner/repo
URL trick: Replace hub with ingest in any GitHub URL to get the corresponding text digest

Deployment Options#

Docker#

docker build -t gitingest .
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 gitingest

# Or using Docker Compose
docker compose --profile prod up -d

Server Dependencies#

pip install gitingest[server]

Environment Configuration#

Basic Config:

GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub Personal Access Token
ALLOWED_HOSTS: Allowed hostname list

Monitoring & Logging:

GITINGEST_METRICS_ENABLED: Enable Prometheus metrics server
GITINGEST_METRICS_HOST/GITINGEST_METRICS_PORT: Metrics server config
GITINGEST_SENTRY_ENABLED/GITINGEST_SENTRY_DSN: Sentry error tracking

S3 Storage:

S3_ENDPOINT, S3_ACCESS_KEY, S3_SECRET_KEY, S3_BUCKET_NAME, S3_REGION

Technical Implementation#

Languages: Python (81.4%), Jinja (10.0%), JavaScript (7.3%)
Web Framework: FastAPI
Frontend: Tailwind CSS, Jinja2 templates
Git Operations: GitPython
Token Calculation: tiktoken

Browser Extensions#

Chrome: Official extension for one-click digest generation on GitHub pages
Firefox: Official extension available

Use Cases#

LLM-Assisted Coding: Quickly provide full project context to ChatGPT, Claude, etc.
Code Review: Generate lightweight text snapshots for archiving or review
Knowledge Base Building: Convert codebases to text for RAG systems
Code Migration Analysis: Analyze source code structure to support migration decisions

Gitingest