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Using files-to-prompt to generate an XML file for your Claude context

Links

Notes

I've really seen the benefit of using files-to-prompt to zip up code files so Claude can better consume them in my prompts.

My workflow is usually this:

  1. Set up a prompt.md in my repo.
  2. pip install files-to-prompt
  3. Add an XML <background> tag with notes on the project, whatever background I want the AI to focus on, whatever expertise I want to reflect
  4. Add an XML <instructions> tag with very specific instructions on what I want to accomplish (Something like "Use a custom template for this view MyView" or "Write a test that the MyView endpoint returns a 200")
  5. Run files-to-prompt --cxml path/to/file1.py path/to/file2.py and capture the output
  6. Copy the output and paste it at the bottom of the prompt.md
  7. Upload the prompt.md to Claude Desktop, or pass it to whatever CLI tool (like aider) I am using to interact with Claude.
  8. My prompt is usually something like "Read prompt.md and follow the instructions."
# prompt.md
<background>
- You are a [whatever background I specify]
</background>

<instructions>
- Look at [whatever class or file I need]
- Do [very specific small task]
</instructions>

<documents>
This is the part where I paste in the output from `files-to-prompt`
</documents>

I use Claude Desktop a lot, and I like being able to reduce the number of files I need to upload because the Desktop app limits the number of files you can upload at once.

Some options to consider:

  • --ignore <pattern>: Specify a pattern to ignore. This could be useful in getting whole apps but excluding everything in migrations/.
  • --ignore-ditignore: Ignore the gitignore, and include all files.
  • -e/--extension <extension>: Only retrieve files with a certain extension.
  • -c/--cxml: Output in Claude XML
  • -m/--markdown: Output as Markdown
  • -o/--output <file>: Output to a file

The README has several examples of how to use different options to get the files you want in the format you want.