Features and Workflow

Features & Workflow 🛠️

Export2AI provides a small set of commands designed around one job: make project context easier to hand to AI tools without flooding the archive with machine-local noise.

---

Feature Overview

Feature	Entry point	Output
Zip folder/workspace	Explorer context menu, Command Palette, Explorer title menu	.zip in workspace root
Copy project structure	Export2AI submenu	clipboard tree in plaintext, Markdown, or XML
Copy one file	right-click a file	exact UTF-8 text copied to clipboard
Open last zip	Export2AI submenu	reveals most recent zip in system file manager
Settings	submenu, Command Palette, status bar click	extension-specific VS Code/Cursor settings page
Manage built-in excludes	Command Palette	checklist for default exclude patterns
Token estimate	status bar, notification, optional badges	offline LLM context estimate

---

Zip Folder / Zip Current Workspace 📁

Use this when you want a full ChatGPT project zip, Claude code review archive, or Cursor AI context handoff.

What happens:

1. Export2AI reads the selected folder or current workspace.
2. It builds the ignore context from built-ins, .gitignore, dotfile rules, dollar-file rules, and user settings.
3. It applies safe collection rules and Git metadata soft-delete.
4. It converts included text files to UTF-8 strings.
5. It replaces unsupported content with short placeholders.
6. It optionally estimates tokens for the selected model.
7. It writes a zip to the workspace root.
8. It shows a notification with file count, target model, and token estimate.

The command is cancellable while scanning/writing.

---

Copy Project Structure 🌳

Use this when an AI only needs a map of the repository, not every file.

Settings that affect it:

Setting	Effect
export2ai.maxDepth	maximum folder depth, default 5
export2ai.outputFormat	plaintext, markdown, or xml
ignore/exclude settings	same safe filtering as archive collection
export2ai.softDeleteGitMetadata	shows the Git marker instead of traversing .git/

Example plaintext tree:

Export2AI/
├── docs/
│   ├── architecture.md
│   └── configuration.md
├── src/
│   ├── extension.ts
│   └── zipService.ts
└── README.md

When token counting is enabled, the completion message includes a token estimate for the copied tree.

---

Copy One File 📄

Use this for one Markdown file, prompt file, source file, or config file.

Important behavior:

Behavior	Detail
Exact text	copies the file's UTF-8 text without zipping
One file only	multi-select is rejected with a visible warning
No silent binary copy	binary files are blocked with a visible message
No comment/compression pipeline	it does not strip comments or compress whitespace
Visible failures	unreadable files and clipboard failures show Export2AI messages

This is intentionally different from a zip export: it is a precise single-file clipboard action.

---

Open Last Zip 📂

Export2AI → Open Last Zip reveals the most recently created zip in the system file manager:

OS	Behavior
Windows	opens Explorer with the zip selected
macOS	opens Finder with the zip selected
Linux	opens the default file manager when supported

The remembered path is session-only. It is lost after a VS Code/Cursor window reload.

---

Settings Navigation ⚙️

Export2AI opens the extension-specific Settings page through VS Code's @ext: route. The extension ID is resolved from the installed manifest instead of hardcoding it.

This is deliberate: direct extension settings navigation avoids slow global Settings search and reduces the risk of Cursor freezing on broad queries like export2ai.

At the top of Settings, export2ai.extensionInfo shows a generated display string such as:

Extension version v.1.2.9 · Last updated June 02, 2026

That field is display-only and generated from package.slim.json plus CHANGELOG.md during build.

---

Built-in Exclude Checklist ✅

Command Palette:

Export2AI: Manage Built-in Exclude Patterns

The checklist lets users disable individual built-in patterns without dumping all built-ins into export2ai.excludePatterns.

Checked	Meaning
yes	matching files stay excluded
no	that built-in is disabled and matching files may be included

Disabled built-ins are stored in:

"export2ai.disabledBuiltInExcludePatterns": []

---

Target Model Menu Rows

When token counting is enabled, the Explorer submenu shows a static target row such as:

Target model: gpt-5.5
Zip Folder

When token counting is disabled, the menu uses model-specific zip rows such as:

Zip Folder for gpt-5.5

A live token number cannot appear in a VS Code menu title. Export2AI shows token counts in the status bar and notifications instead.

---

Recommended Workflow for AI Uploads

1. Keep removeComments and compressCode off for review-quality handoffs.
2. Export the smallest folder that still contains enough context.
3. Check the token estimate.
4. Upload the zip with a prompt that says it is an Export2AI context archive.
5. Tell the AI to read _EXPORT2AI_MANIFEST.txt, README.md, and AGENTS.md first when present.