🌳 Treex - Advanced Command-line Directory Tree Visualization Tool

Today I’d like to recommend a small tool I recently developed for developers — Treex.

🤔 Why do you need this tool?

During development and learning, you may have encountered scenarios like:

• For an unfamiliar project, looking at the complex project structure, not knowing where to start
• Wanting to quickly show a large model your project structure so it can help you understand
• Needing to insert a visual directory structure when writing project documentation

The traditional tree command works, but its features are too basic. While using it, I often found that it would draw out files I didn’t need (for example, node_modules in Node projects), resulting in too much unnecessary information and making things look messier.

So I used Cursor and developed Treex in Go. It’s a directory tree tool that supports multiple output formats and filtering.

Project URL: https://github.com/shiquda/treex

✨ Core Features at a Glance

🎨 Multiple Output Formats

• 🌲 Tree format (default): classic command-line tree structure
• 📑 Indent format: clean hierarchical indentation
• 📝 Markdown format: paste directly into documents
• 📊 Mermaid format: generate embeddable flowcharts

🔍 Smart Filtering

• 🕵️ Hide hidden files like .git
• 📁 Show only directory structure
• 🚫 Exclude specified directories/file types

🛠️ Highly Customizable

• 📏 Control directory depth
• 💾 Output to file
• 🎯 Custom display formats

🚀 Quick Start

Download

Method 1: Download precompiled binaries

Download from the Release page, then add to PATH

Method 2: Install with Go

If you have a Go environment, you can install with one command:

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go install github.com/shiquda/treex@latest

Basic Usage

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# View current directory structure
treex

# View specified directory
treex -d /path/to/project

# View help information
treex -h

Output:

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└── .
    ├── .git
    │   ├── HEAD
    │   ├── config
    │   ├── description
    │   ├── hooks
    │   │   ├── applypatch-msg.sample
    │   │   ├── commit-msg.sample
    │   │   ├── fsmonitor-watchman.sample
    │   │   ├── post-update.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-applypatch.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-commit.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-merge-commit.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-push.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-rebase.sample
    │   │   ├── pre-receive.sample
    │   │   ├── prepare-commit-msg.sample
    │   │   ├── push-to-checkout.sample
    │   │   ├── sendemail-validate.sample
    │   │   └── update.sample
    │   ├── info
    │   │   └── exclude
    │   ├── objects
    │   │   ├── info
    │   │   └── pack
    │   └── refs
    │       ├── heads
    │       └── tags
    ├── .gitignore
    ├── 1.go
    ├── 2.go
    ├── README.md
    ├── build
    │   └── win
    │       └── output.exe
    └── test
        ├── 3.go
        └── README_test.md

⚡ Advanced Usage Examples

1. Generate project documentation

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# Exclude hidden files, output Markdown format to specified file
treex -H -f md -o PROJECT_STRUCTURE.md

• ./
  • 1.go
  • 2.go
  • README.md
  • build/
    • win/
      • output.exe
  • test/
    • 3.go
    • README_test.md

2. Tech talk illustrations

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# Keep only non-hidden directories, generate Mermaid code
treex -HD -f mermaid

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graph TD
    N1[./]
    N2[build/]
    N1 --> N2
    N3[win/]
    N2 --> N3
    N4[test/]
    N1 --> N4

3. Exclude specific files

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# Exclude unimportant directories and file types
treex -e ".git/, .md"

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└── .
    ├── .gitignore
    ├── 1.go
    ├── 2.go
    ├── build
    │   └── win
    │       └── output.exe
    └── test
        └── 3.go

🛠️ Full Parameter Reference

You can check https://github.com/shiquda/treex for details.

💖 Looking Forward to Your Participation

Treex is still in early development. I don’t have much development experience, and limited by my personal skill level, the tool inevitably has shortcomings. If you:

• Found a bug
• Have feature suggestions
• Want to contribute code

Feel free to submit an Issue or PR on GitHub! Of course, a ⭐ star of encouragement would also be great～

Project URL: https://github.com/shiquda/treex