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todo-tree

★ 54 Open GitHub ↗

A command-line tool to find and display TODO-style comments in your codebase.

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# Todo Tree

A command-line tool to find and display TODO-style comments in your codebase, similar to the VS Code "Todo Tree" extension.

![Demo of Todo Tree](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexandretrotel/todo-tree/main/assets/todo-tree.gif)

## Features

- 🔍 **Recursive directory scanning** - Respects `.gitignore` rules automatically, walked in parallel across CPU cores
- 👀 **Watch mode** - `tt watch` re-scans automatically as files change
- 🏷️ **Configurable tags** - TODO, FIXME, BUG, NOTE, HACK, WARN, PERF, and more (and custom tags)
- 🌳 **Tree view output** - Beautiful hierarchical display grouped by file
- 📋 **Multiple output formats** - Tree, flat list, and JSON
- ⚙️ **Configuration file support** - `.todorc` in JSON or TOML format
- 🎨 **Colored output** - Priority-based coloring for different tag types
- 🔗 **Clickable links** - Terminal hyperlinks to file locations (where supported)
- 🤖 **GitHub Action** - Automatically scan PRs and post TODO summaries as comments

## Installation

### Using Cargo (Recommended)

```bash
cargo install todo-tree
```

### From Source

```bash
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/alexandretrotel/todo-tree.git
cd todo-tree

# Build and install
cargo install --path .
```

### Using Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

```bash
brew tap alexandretrotel/todo-tree
brew install todo-tree
```

### NixOS (Flakes)

#### Try before you install

```bash
# runs the default todo-tree command
nix run github:alexandretrotel/todo-tree

# create a shell with the command available (with nix-output-monitor)
nom shell github:alexandretrotel/todo-tree
tt tags

# or, just normal nix
nix shell github:alexandretrotel/todo-tree
tt scan ~/projects/todo-tree --tags FIXME
```

**Note:** If you haven't enabled the experimental Nix command and flakes features, you need to pass `--extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes"` to the command. See the [Nix command wiki](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Nix_command) for more details.

#### Install for your system

```nix
# flake.nix
{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    todo-tree.url = "github:alexandretrotel/todo-tree";
  };

outputs = { self, nixpkgs, todo-tree, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [ ./configuration.nix ];
      specialArgs = { inherit todo-tree; };
    };
  };
}

# configuration.nix
{ pkgs, todo-tree, ... }:

{
  environment.systemPackages = [
    todo-tree.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.todo-tree
  ];
}
```

## Usage

The tool provides two binary names: `todo-tree` and `tt` (alias for quick access).

### Basic Commands

```bash
# Scan current directory (default command)
tt

# Scan a specific directory
tt scan ./src

# Scan with specific tags
tt scan --tags TODO,FIXME,BUG

# Watch for file changes and re-scan automatically
tt watch ./src

# Tune the debounce window (default 250ms) for bursty saves
tt watch --debounce-ms 500

# List all TODOs in flat format
tt list

# Show configured tags
tt tags

# Show statistics
tt stats

# Generate a shell completion script
tt completions zsh > /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_tt

# Generate a man page
tt man > /usr/local/share/man/man1/tt.1
```

### Watch Mode

`tt watch` (alias `tt w`) accepts the same filter and output flags as `tt scan` (`--tags`, `--include`, `--exclude`, `--json`, `--flat`, `--hidden`, etc.), re-scanning and reprinting on every relevant file change:

```bash
tt watch --tags TODO,FIXME --exclude "*.log"
```

File-system events are filtered through the same `.gitignore` and `--include`/`--exclude` rules as a normal scan before a re-scan is triggered, so noise from ignored directories (`target/`, `node_modules/`, ...) doesn't cause unnecessary re-scans.

### Output Formats

`tt scan`/`tt` (default), `tt list`, `tt watch`, and `tt stats` render human-oriented output locally: a colored tree (or flat list for `tt list`), plus a summary block. Pass `--json` to switch any of them to machine-readable JSON, `--flat` (`tt scan`/`tt watch` only) for a flat, ungrouped list, or `--plain` for uncolored, unlinked, script-friendly text (implies `--flat` unless `--json` is also set).

Scans that take over a second print a "Scanning..." indicator to stderr (only when stderr is a terminal and outside CI), so a large tree doesn't look hung.

### Exit Codes

`todo-tree`/`tt` return `0` on success and a specific non-zero code otherwise, so scripts can branch on failure mode without parsing stderr: `1` for an unclassified error, `2` for a command-line usage error (from argument parsing itself), `3` for a config file that exists but couldn't be parsed, and `4` for a filesystem error (bad path, permissions, ...).

**CI auto-detection:** when a `CI` environment variable is set — as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Travis CI, and most other providers do by default — these commands default to JSON output instead of the local tree/flat/text output, so CI logs and downstream tooling get structured data without needing `--json` on every invocation. An explicit `--json` or `--flat` flag always overrides this auto-detection.

## Configuration

Create a `.todorc.json` or `.todorc.toml` file in your project root, either by hand or with `tt init` (`--format toml` for TOML). If the file already exists, `tt init` asks before overwriting it when running interactively; pass `--force` to overwrite unconditionally, or `--no-input` (global flag) to fail instead of prompting, e.g. in CI:

### JSON Format (`.todorc.json`)

```json
{
  "tags": ["TODO", "FIXME", "BUG", "NOTE", "HACK", "XXX", "WARN", "PERF"],
  "include": ["*.rs", "*.py", "*.js", "*.ts"],
  "exclude": ["target/**", "node_modules/**", "dist/**"],
  "json": false,
  "flat": false,
  "no_color": false,
  "ignore_case": false,
  "require_colon": true
}
```

### TOML Format (`.todorc.toml`)

```toml
tags = ["TODO", "FIXME", "BUG", "NOTE", "HACK"]
include = ["*.rs", "*.py"]
exclude = ["target/**", "node_modules/**"]
json = false
flat = false
no_color = false
```

### Configuration Search Order

1. `.todorc` in the current directory
2. `.todorc.json` in the current directory
3. `.todorc.toml` in the current directory
4. Parent directories (recursive)
5. `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/todo-tree/config.json` or `config.toml` (global config); falls back to the platform config directory (e.g. `~/.config` on Linux, `~/Library/Application Support` on macOS) if `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` isn't set

### Environment Variables

`TODO_TREE_TAGS`, `TODO_TREE_INCLUDE`, and `TODO_TREE_EXCLUDE` (comma-separated) and `TODO_TREE_JSON`/`TODO_TREE_FLAT`/`TODO_TREE_NO_COLOR`/`TODO_TREE_IGNORE_CASE`/`TODO_TREE_REQUIRE_COLON` (booleans) override the loaded config file. Full precedence, highest first: **CLI flags > environment variables > project/user `.todorc` file > built-in defaults**.

```bash
TODO_TREE_TAGS=TODO,FIXME TODO_TREE_NO_COLOR=1 tt
```

## Tag Matching Rules

By default, todo-tree requires tags to be **UPPERCASE** and followed by a **colon**:

```rust
// TODO: This will be found ✓
// FIXME: This will be found ✓
// BUG: This will be found ✓

// todo: This will NOT be found (lowercase) ✗
// TODO This will NOT be found (no colon) ✗
// Todo: This will NOT be found (mixed case) ✗
```

**Optional author/assignee syntax** (still works with colon):
```rust
// TODO(john): Assigned to john ✓
// FIXME(team): Needs team review ✓
```

### Flexible Matching Options

You can customize the matching behavior with CLI flags:

```bash
# Ignore case when matching (matches TODO, todo, Todo, etc.)
tt scan --ignore-case

# Allow tags without colon (matches "TODO something")
tt scan --no-require-colon

# Use both options together (most flexible)
tt scan --ignore-case --no-require-colon
```

Or set these options in your `.todorc.json`:

```json
{
  "ignore_case": true,
  "require_colon": false
}
```

### Why These Defaults?

The strict defaults (uppercase + colon required) significantly reduce false positives.

These defaults align with most coding conventions and help you find **intentional TODO comments**, not accidental matches.

## Terminal Support

### Clickable Links

The tool generates clickable hyperlinks (OSC 8) in supported terminals:

- [iTerm2](https://iterm2.com/)
- [WezTerm](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/)
- [Hyper](https://hyper.is/)
- [VS Code Terminal](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/terminal/basics)
- [GNOME Terminal](https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-terminal/stable/) (VTE 0.50+)
- [Konsole](https://konsole.kde.org/)
- [Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/)
- [Ghostty](https://ghostty.org/)

### Color Support

Colors are automatically enabled when outputting to a terminal. Use `--no-color` or set the [`NO_COLOR`](https://no-color.org/) environment variable to disable.

## GitHub Actions

[todo-tree-action](https://github.com/alexandretrotel/todo-tree-action) is a GitHub Action that automatically scans your pull requests for TODO comments and posts a summary as a PR comment. Features include:
- Scan only changed files in PRs
- Filter to show only NEW TODOs (not in base branch)
- Automatic PR comment with formatted results
- Full configuration support

## Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

## Acknowledgments

Inspired by the [Todo Tree](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Gruntfuggly.todo-tree) VS Code extension

## License

GPL-3.0-or-later

todo-tree

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