tree2repo

tree2repo

Create a project directory structure from a pasted tree printed by a tool, an editor, or an AI model.

Instead of clicking New folder fifty times, you paste a tree and let this tool create all folders and files for you.

Features

• Paste a simple indented tree and turn it into real folders and files.
• Ignores the first top-level label by default, so you can paste from inside the project root without nesting.
• Optional flag to respect the top-level label and create that folder too.
• Tiny Python API if you want to generate structures programmatically.

Installation

pip install tree2repo

Basic usage

Assume you are inside a directory where you want to generate your project:

cd my_project_root

tree2repo << 'EOF'
my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  tests/
    test_core.py
  README.md
  pyproject.toml
EOF

Result:

• The top-level label line my_project_root/ is ignored by default.
• Inside my_project_root you will now have:

src/
  my_package/
    __init__.py
    core.py
tests/
  test_core.py
README.md
pyproject.toml

This is ideal when you get a tree for a repository but you are already standing at the intended root.

Respecting the top-level folder

If you actually want the top-level folder to be created, use --respect-root:

cd /tmp

tree2repo --respect-root << 'EOF'
my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  tests/
    test_core.py
  README.md
  pyproject.toml
EOF

Now you get:

my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  tests/
    test_core.py
  README.md
  pyproject.toml

Choosing a different root directory

You can tell tree2repo to create the structure somewhere else using --root:

tree2repo --root /tmp/new_project << 'EOF'
my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  README.md
EOF

With default settings, the top-level label is ignored, so the files end up directly under /tmp/new_project.

Tree format

tree2repo expects a very simple, whitespace-indented format:

• Each line is a file or directory.
• Indentation is spaces only.
• Directories end with a forward slash /.
• Files have no trailing slash.

Example:

my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  tests/
    test_core.py
  README.md

Notes:

• Indentation depth is determined by the number of leading spaces.
• You can paste from editors, terminals, or any tool that prints a similar tree, as long as the indentation and trailing slashes are preserved.
• Empty lines are ignored.

Python API

You can also use tree2repo directly from Python.

from tree2repo import create_from_tree

tree = """my_project_root/
  src/
    my_package/
      __init__.py
      core.py
  README.md
"""


# Create under "./generated" and ignore the top-level label "my-project/"
create_from_tree(tree_text=tree, root="./generated", ignore_root_label=True)

Arguments:

• tree_text: the indented tree as a single string.
• root: directory where the structure should be created.
• ignore_root_label: when true, skips the first top-level directory label.

Behavior details

• Directories are created with mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True), so existing directories are reused.
• Files are created empty with touch semantics (existing files are left as they are).
• The first top-level directory line (indentation zero and ending with /) is treated as a label and skipped when ignore_root_label is true.
• If you use --respect-root in the CLI, ignore_root_label is set to false and the top-level folder is created.

Examples

1. Generate a simple package skeleton

cd my_package_root

tree2repo << 'EOF'
example-project/
  src/
    example_package/
      __init__.py
      cli.py
  tests/
    test_cli.py
  pyproject.toml
  README.md
EOF

You now have a ready-made layout to start turning into a real package.

2. Use from within a script

from tree2repo import create_from_tree

skeleton = """example-project/
  src/
    example_package/
      __init__.py
      api.py
  tests/
    test_api.py
    

create_from_tree(skeleton, root=".", ignore_root_label=True)

Development

If you want to work on tree2repo itself:

git clone https://github.com/akshan-main/tree2repo.git
cd tree2repo

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

pip install -e .

Run tests (if you add or modify them):

pytest

Limitations and ideas

Current focus is deliberately small:

• No parsing of complex tree outputs with extra characters (├──, │, and so on).
• No built-in support for templated file contents.
• No validation that filenames are valid on all platforms.

Potential future improvements:

• Optional support for common tree output formats.
• Allow specifying file contents inline with a simple syntax.
• Predefined skeletons for common layouts (libraries, apps, tooling).

For now, tree2repo is meant to solve a very specific irritation: turning a pasted tree into a real project skeleton in a single command.