Quick start

1. See what would be packed

From the project root:

npx lmpack pack --dry-run

--dry-run prints the report to stdout and writes nothing. For the lmpack repository itself the report looks like this (shortened):

lmpack 0.1.0 report (dry run, pack not written)

  root       C:/Users/me/Code/lmpack
  tokenizer  o200k
  format     md
  budget     none

Packed: 54 files, 33,949 tokens

Top 10 files by tokens:
  1,907  src/config.ts
  1,628  src/walk.ts
  1,587  README.md
  ...

Skipped: 8
  ignored   dist/                   .gitignore
  ignored   docs/node_modules/      .gitignore
  ignored   node_modules/           .gitignore
  ...
  lockfile  package-lock.json       pass --include to pack it

Everything under Skipped stayed out of the pack, with the reason on the right. The file contents never appear in the report.

2. Write the pack

npx lmpack pack --out pack.md

The pack goes to pack.md, the report to stderr. Without --out the pack goes to stdout, so it can be piped:

npx lmpack pack | clip        # Windows
npx lmpack pack | pbcopy      # macOS

3. Fit a budget

npx lmpack pack --budget 20k --out pack.md

If everything fits, the exit code is 0. If some files had to go, the exit code is 2 and the report lists them:

Packed: 37 files, 19,859 tokens (99% of budget)
...
Dropped by budget: 17 files, 14,013 tokens freed:
  1,236  docs/src/content/docs/index.mdx  (category docs)
  1,175  docs/src/content/docs/reference/cli.md  (category docs)
  ...
  1,496  tests/cli.test.ts  (category tests)
  ...

Which files go first is explained in Budget.

4. Narrow the selection

npx lmpack pack src --include "*.ts" --exclude "*.test.ts"

A glob without a slash matches the file name at any depth; a glob with a slash matches the path from the pack root. See the CLI reference.

5. Save the selection

Put the flags into lmpack.json so the same pack can be built again:

{
  "budget": "120k",
  "profiles": {
    "backend": { "include": ["src/**", "migrations/**"], "budget": "80k" }
  }
}

npx lmpack pack --profile backend --out backend.md

See Profiles and Configuration.