Tree Mapper

Snapshot any folder into a single Markdown file — full directory tree, every file's source, and an LLM-ready token count. One click.

What it does

Right-click any folder in VS Code's Explorer → Tree Mapper: Generate Snapshot → get a single .md file with everything inside:

An Index linking to every section, plus a clickable file jump-list so you can find a specific file instantly even in large snapshots
A Workspace Tree — full ├── / └── view of the repository, matching what you see in the Explorer sidebar
A Snapshot Tree — the same tree format, scoped to only the files you chose to include
Every included file's source code in language-aware fenced blocks (60+ languages), each followed by a Back to top link
A snapshot header with timestamp, file counts, total repo size, and estimated token count
Secrets redacted — API keys, tokens and private keys found in the files you include are replaced with [REDACTED]
Or, if you select no files, a lightweight structure-only snapshot containing just the project tree

Snapshots are saved to .tree/yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss.md (inside the .tree folder). Everything runs locally — no network calls.

Usage

Snapshot a folder Right-click any folder in the Explorer → Tree Mapper: Generate Snapshot

Snapshot the workspace root Ctrl+Shift+P → Tree Mapper: Generate Snapshot

From the status bar Click the Tree Mapper item in the bottom-right status bar — it shows live scan state and acts as a shortcut to the command.

After triggering, the interactive file picker opens. Confirm your selection and a snapshot is generated. A notification appears with Show in Folder, Open File and Copy File buttons.

In a multi-root workspace, running the command from the Command Palette or status bar asks which workspace folder to snapshot. Right-clicking a folder in the Explorer always uses that folder.

Notification buttons

When a snapshot is saved, the notification offers three buttons:

Button	What it does
Show in Folder	Opens the `.tree` folder in your OS file manager with the snapshot highlighted
Open File	Opens the snapshot in the editor
Copy File	Copies the snapshot's content to the clipboard (a short "Copied to clipboard" message confirms it)

Nothing is copied automatically — the clipboard is only touched when you click Copy File. The buttons work for structure-only snapshots too, and are not shown if the file could not be written.

Interactive file picker

Before generating, Tree Mapper opens a full-screen webview panel with every file and folder rendered as a checkbox tree. These start unchecked:

files matching your .gitignore files,
files matching the built-in ignore list (see built-in ignore patterns) — plus anything you've added via treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns — marked with an excluded badge,
files where a possible secret was found, marked with a ⚠ badge.

Everything else is checked by default. node_modules/, .git/ and .tree/ are skipped during the scan itself, so they never appear in the picker and large repos open quickly.

The picker is fully offline: it loads no fonts or other network resources, uses your VS Code fonts, and runs under a restrictive Content-Security-Policy that blocks all network access.

Toolbar actions:

Action	Description
Select all	Check every file in the workspace
Deselect all	Uncheck everything
Reset defaults	Restore the default checked/unchecked state
Restore last	Re-apply the selection from your previous run (appears when a saved selection exists)
Select changed	Replace the selection with the files `git status` reports as modified, added, renamed or untracked (shown only when there are changed files; shows the file count)
Select staged	Replace the selection with the files staged in git (shown only when there are staged files; shows the file count)
Select filtered	Check only the files currently visible in the search filter
Deselect filtered	Uncheck only the files currently visible in the search filter
Reload icon (top right of the picker)	Rescan the project without closing the picker: picks up new and deleted files, `.gitignore` edits, `git status` changes and presets. Your current selection is kept; new files get their default state
Filter	Type to narrow the tree by filename or path. Matching folders and files keep their checkbox; parent folders shown only to give a match context (not matched themselves) are still visible but their checkbox is hidden

Presets (toolbar):

Action	Description
Presets ▾	Dropdown listing your saved presets (with file counts). Clicking one checks exactly its files. The last item, Manage Presets, opens a second row
Manage Presets row	Shows every preset with a ✕ to delete it (asks Yes / No first), plus + New preset and Done
+ New preset	Reveals a name box with Save and Cancel. The box is hidden and cleared again after saving (confirms before overwriting)

Other picker features:

Indentation connector lines — vertical guide lines between nesting levels for clear hierarchy
Auto-collapsed excluded dirs — folders whose entire contents are excluded by the ignore list start collapsed, reducing noise in large repos
Live file count — the footer updates in real time as you check and uncheck files
Structure-only mode — uncheck everything (or use Deselect all) and the button changes to Generate Structure Only
Fast on large workspaces — checkbox lookups and bulk selection changes (Select all, Select/Deselect filtered, Reset defaults, Restore last, Select changed/staged, choose a preset) are O(1)/O(n), so the picker stays responsive even on workspaces with thousands of files

The picker remembers your last selection per workspace root in .tree/last-selection.json and restores it automatically on next open.

Git changes selection

In a git repository, Select changed and Select staged pick files straight from git status, so you can snapshot "what I'm working on" in one click.

Changed = modified + added + renamed (new path) + untracked. Staged = files staged in the index.
Paths are converted to the folder you're snapshotting; deleted files and files outside that folder are left out.
Default-ignored files (including .gitignore matches and secret-protected files), binary/oversized files and files with a possible secret (⚠) are never selected this way.
It uses only local git with a 5-second timeout. If the folder isn't a git repo, or git isn't installed, the buttons are simply hidden — no error popup. A button is also hidden while it has nothing to select (no changed files, or no staged files), and it comes back after a rescan if that changes.

Presets

Save a selection you use often (for example "frontend" or "auth flow") and bring it back later.

Presets live in .tree/presets.json: { "version": 1, "presets": { "frontend": ["src/a.js"] } }.
Open Presets ▾ and choose Manage Presets, then + New preset, type a name and click Save to store the currently checked files. Names are trimmed and limited to 60 characters; saving over an existing name asks for confirmation. The name box only appears while you create a preset and is cleared after saving.
Choosing a preset in the Presets ▾ dropdown checks exactly its files. Files that no longer exist are dropped and shown once as N missing.
In the Manage Presets row, click ✕ on a preset and confirm with Yes to delete it.
Saves are atomic (temp file → rename). A corrupt presets.json is treated as empty.

`.gitignore` support

Tree Mapper reads your .gitignore files so the picker and the Workspace Tree match what git ignores:

It collects the .gitignore of the scanned folder, its parent folders up to the repo root (the folder with .git), and nested ones inside.
Each .gitignore applies only to paths under its own folder, matched relative to that folder. ! negation works as in git.
Ignored files start unchecked in the picker (same as built-in ignores) and are hidden from the Workspace Tree.
Rules are applied in this order, last match wins: .gitignore → built-in list → your treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns. So a ! line in a .gitignore can never re-include a protected secret file.
An unreadable .gitignore is skipped silently.

Turn it off with treemapper.respectGitignore (default true).

Secret scan and redaction

Text files (within the size limit, and not already default-ignored) are scanned locally with regex rules for:

private key blocks,
AWS access keys (AKIA…), GitHub tokens (ghp_…, github_pat_…), Slack tokens (xox…), Stripe live keys (sk_live_…), Google API keys (AIza…),
JWT-like tokens (eyJ….….…) and Bearer <token> values,
URL credentials (postgres://user:PASSWORD@host) and AWS secret access keys,
password / secret / token / api_key assignments with a real-looking value, quoted (api_key = "…") or unquoted on a line of its own (DB_PASSWORD=… in .env / YAML files; unquoted values must contain a digit). Placeholders such as your_key_here, xxx, changeme and process.env.X are ignored.

What happens next:

A file with findings shows a ⚠ badge (the tooltip lists the rule names) and starts unchecked.
If you tick it anyway and treemapper.redactSecrets is true (the default), each match is replaced with [REDACTED] in the snapshot and the header adds Secrets redacted: N.
The token estimate and code fences are computed on the redacted text.
Only the number of findings and the rule names are kept in memory — the secret value is never stored and never sent to the picker.

This is a safety net, not a guarantee: regex rules can miss secrets in unusual formats, so review a snapshot before sharing it.

Output format

Generated: 2026 04 28 06:50:41 PM UTC+6
Files included: 12
Files skipped: 1
Files excluded: 345
Secrets redacted: 2
Repo size: 75.57 KB
Est. token count: ~18,676 tokens

Files skipped, Files excluded and Secrets redacted only appear when they are above zero. Followed by the sections below, in this order: Index, Workspace Tree, Snapshot Tree, Skipped Files (when applicable), and File Contents.

Index

Links to every section present in the snapshot (Workspace Tree, Snapshot Tree, Skipped Files when there are any, File Contents) so you can jump straight to the part you need.

Workspace Tree

Reflects the full repository structure, excluding paths matched by your .gitignore files, the built-in ignore list and anything added via treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns. It hides exactly the files the picker leaves unchecked by default, regardless of what you chose to include in the snapshot.

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts
│   └── utils.ts
├── package.json
└── README.md

Snapshot Tree

Shows only the files actually included in this snapshot run — the subset you confirmed in the picker.

Skipped files

If a file was selected in the picker but couldn't be read (binary content, or size exceeding treemapper.maxFileSizeKB), a ## Skipped Files section appears in the snapshot with the filename and reason. The header separately reports Files skipped and Files excluded (user-unchecked); a skipped file is counted only under Files skipped.

File Contents

Right after the ## File Contents heading, a clickable list of every included file links to that file's section further down — useful for jumping straight to a specific file in a snapshot with many of them, without scrolling through the tree. Each file's code block is followed by a Back to top link that returns you to this list.

All links are plain markdown heading anchors (no HTML), generated and de-duplicated the same way GitHub and VS Code's Markdown preview do — including non-English file names, whose letters are kept — so they work in any standard Markdown viewer.

Structure-only snapshot

If you generate with no files selected, the snapshot contains only a # Project Structure title and the project tree (the same tree as the Workspace Tree, excluding default-ignored paths) — no header stats, index, or file contents. An empty selection is not saved as your "last selection", so Restore last still brings back your previous real selection.

Code fences

Each file's source is wrapped in a fenced code block. If a file itself contains fences (every README, for example), the snapshot uses a longer fence — one backtick more than the longest run of backticks in that file — so the contents can never close the block early.

Token estimate

The Est. token count field uses a ~4 chars/token approximation — useful for gauging how much context window space a snapshot will consume before pasting it into an LLM.

Git integration

When a .git folder is detected, Tree Mapper automatically adds .tree/ to your .gitignore under a # Tree Mapper comment block. Only missing entries are added — no duplicates, no false positives.

Because .tree/ is ignored, your snapshots, last-selection.json and presets.json stay out of commits. See also Git changes selection and .gitignore support.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`treemapper.maxFileSizeKB`	`2048`	Files larger than this (in KB) are excluded from snapshot contents even if checked in the picker. They appear in the `Files skipped` count.
`treemapper.keepLastSnapshots`	`10`	Number of recent snapshots to retain in `.tree/`. Oldest are deleted automatically after each run.
`treemapper.respectGitignore`	`true`	Uncheck files matched by `.gitignore` (the scanned folder, its parents up to the repo root, and nested `.gitignore` files) in the picker and hide them from the Workspace Tree. Built-in secret protection always stays on.
`treemapper.redactSecrets`	`true`	Replace detected secrets with `[REDACTED]` in the snapshot, even if you tick the file. Files with findings start unchecked and show a ⚠ badge.
`treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns`	`[]`	Your own extra glob patterns to uncheck by default in the file picker, on top of the built-in secrets/credentials list in built-in list. `.tree/` and the built-in list are always excluded and can't be turned off from here. Duplicates and entries already in the built-in list are removed automatically.

Default ignore patterns

Tree Mapper always unchecks a built-in list of build/VCS noise and common secret and credential files (.env, private keys, cloud credentials, Terraform state and more). See the full list of built-in ignore patterns.

To add your own, use treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns. Your patterns are always merged on top of the built-in list, never in place of it:

"treemapper.defaultIgnorePatterns": ["*.local.json", ".private/"]

Installation

From the Marketplace (recommended)

Open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X), search Tree Mapper, and click Install — or visit the VS Code Marketplace directly.

ext install MrDeveloperJIS.tree-mapper

From a VSIX file

Download from the Releases page, then:

Extensions panel → ⋯ menu → Install from VSIX…
Or via terminal: code --install-extension path/to/tree-mapper-x.x.x.vsix

Requirements

VS Code 1.85.0 or higher. Git is optional — it is only needed for the Select changed / Select staged buttons.

Development

npm install
npm test        # unit tests (node:test)
npm run lint    # ESLint

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.private		.private
.vscode		.vscode
docs		docs
src		src
test		test
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.vscodeignore		.vscodeignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
eslint.config.js		eslint.config.js
icon.png		icon.png
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

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Tree Mapper

What it does

Usage

Notification buttons

Interactive file picker

Git changes selection

Presets

`.gitignore` support

Secret scan and redaction

Output format

Index

Workspace Tree

Snapshot Tree

Skipped files

File Contents

Structure-only snapshot

Code fences

Token estimate

Git integration

Settings

Default ignore patterns

Installation

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Tree Mapper

What it does

Usage

Notification buttons

Interactive file picker

Git changes selection

Presets

.gitignore support

Secret scan and redaction

Output format

Index

Workspace Tree

Snapshot Tree

Skipped files

File Contents

Structure-only snapshot

Code fences

Token estimate

Git integration

Settings

Default ignore patterns

Installation

Requirements

Development

License

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`.gitignore` support