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Comment by bredren | Hacker News Reader

Mine is. And it is awesome: https://github.com/banagale/FileKitty

The most recent release includes a MacOS build in a dmg signed by Apple: https://github.com/banagale/FileKitty/releases/tag/v0.2.3

I vibed that workflow just so more people could have access to this tool. It was a pain and it actually took time away from toenail clipping.

And while I didn't lay hands on a guitar much during this period, I did manage to build this while bouncing between playing Civil War tunes on a 3D-printed violin and generating music in Suno for a soundtrack to “Back on That Crust,” the missing and one true spiritual successor to ToeJam & Earl: https://suno.com/song/e5b6dc04-ffab-4310-b9ef-815bdf742ecb

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This app is concatenating files with an extra line of metadata added? You know this could be done in a few lines of shell script? You can then make it a finder action extension so it’s part of the system file manager app.

Sic transit gloria mundi

The parent claim was that devs don’t open-source their personal AI tools. FileKitty is mine and it is MIT-licensed on GitHub.

It began as an experiment in AI-assisted app design and a cross-platform “cat these files” utility.

Since then it has picked up:

- Snapshot history (and change flags) for any file selection

- A rendered folder tree that LLMs can digest, with per-prompt ignore filters

- String-based ignore rules for both tree and file output, so prompts stay surgical

My recent focus is making that generated context modular, so additional inputs (logs, design docs, architecture notes) can plug in cleanly. Apple’s new on-device foundation models could pair nicely with that.

The bigger point: most AI tooling hides the exact nature of context. FileKitty puts that step in the open and keeps the programmer in the loop.

I continue to believe LLMs can solve big problems with appropriate context and that intentionality in context prep is important step in evaluating ideas and implementation suggestions found in LLM outputs.

There's a Homebrew build available and I'd be happy to take contributions: https://github.com/banagale/FileKitty

man, the icon is beautiful!

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