structfast

structfast is a production-ready Python package and CLI that turns text-based folder trees into real directories and files.

It is designed for trees copied from:

• ChatGPT or other AI tools
• GitHub READMEs
• markdown docs
• plain text notes
• indentation-only outlines

Features

• Parse .txt, .md, or raw string input
• Support Unicode tree drawings like ├──, └──, │
• Handle indentation-based and messy AI-generated structures
• Build safely with dry-run, overwrite, and skip-existing modes
• Read structures directly from the clipboard
• Export an existing directory back into a tree representation
• Use as both a CLI tool and a Python API

Installation

Install with pip:

pip install structfast

Install with uv:

uv tool install structfast

Run without installing globally:

uvx structfast build structure.txt

Quick Start

Given a text file named structure.txt:

a2a-system/
├── backend/
│   ├── agents/
│   │   ├── planner.py
│   │   ├── worker.py
│   │   └── critic.py
│   └── main.py
└── requirements.txt

Build it in the current directory:

structfast build structure.txt

With uv:

uvx structfast build structure.txt

Preview without writing:

structfast build structure.txt --dry-run

Build into a specific root:

structfast build structure.txt --root ./sandbox

Paste directly from the clipboard:

structfast paste --dry-run --smart

Export an existing directory:

structfast export .

CLI Reference

structfast build <source>

Options:

• --root PATH: destination root directory, defaults to the current directory
• --dry-run: print planned actions without creating files or folders
• --force: overwrite existing files
• --skip-existing: skip any path that already exists
• --smart: enable aggressive cleanup for malformed trees and inconsistent indentation
• --verbose: show extra parser and builder details

Example output:

[DIR] a2a-system/
[DIR] a2a-system/backend/
[FILE] a2a-system/backend/main.py
[FILE] a2a-system/requirements.txt

structfast paste

Reads clipboard content using pyperclip, parses it, and builds the structure with the same flags as build.

structfast export <path>

Generates a tree view from an existing directory. By default it prints to stdout; use --output structure.txt to write it to a file.

Python API

from structfast import build_structure, export_structure, parse_structure

result = build_structure("structure.txt", root=".", dry_run=True, smart=True)
for action in result.actions:
    print(action.kind, action.relative_path, action.status)

nodes = parse_structure(\"\"\"
project/
  app/
    main.py
  README.md
\"\"\")

tree = export_structure(".")
print(tree)

Smart Parsing

The --smart mode makes parsing more forgiving by:

• stripping markdown fences and list bullets
• normalizing tabs to spaces
• tolerating inconsistent indentation levels
• cleaning common AI formatting artifacts
• inferring directory types from nesting when trailing / is missing

Safety Model

• Existing directories are reused safely
• Existing files are only overwritten with --force
• Use --skip-existing to ignore existing paths
• Use --dry-run to inspect planned actions before writing

Development

Create a local dev environment with pip:

python -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .[dev]

Create a local dev environment with uv:

uv sync --dev

Run tests with pip/venv:

pytest

Run tests with uv:

uv run pytest

Run the CLI in development with uv:

uv run structfast build structure.txt --dry-run

Build distributions with either tool:

python -m build

uv build

License

MIT License