📦 GitHub Repository Exporter

A fast and efficient Rust CLI tool to export GitHub repositories to Markdown format.

Perfect for documentation, archiving, or analyzing repository contents offline.

✨ Features

• Multiple Input Methods: Accept GitHub URLs, owner/repo format, or interactive input
• Smart Filtering: Automatically excludes binary files, build artifacts, and common ignored paths
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress indicators for large repositories
• Rate Limit Handling: Intelligent handling of GitHub API rate limits
• Error Recovery: Robust error handling with retry logic
• Markdown Export: Clean, readable Markdown output with syntax highlighting support

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ (install from rustup.rs)
• GitHub Personal Access Token (for private repos or higher rate limits)

From Source

git clone https://github.com/tidynest/repo_exporter.git
cd repo_exporter
cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/repo_exporter

Using Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/tidynest/repo_exporter.git

🔧 Configuration

Set your GitHub token as an environment variable:

export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"

Or create a .env file in the project directory:

GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token_here

📖 Usage

Run the tool:

cargo run
# or if installed
repo_exporter

Input Methods

The tool offers three ways to specify a repository:

1. Full GitHub URL

   https://github.com/tidynest/security_toolkit
   

2. Owner/Repository Format

   tidynest/security_toolkit
   

3. Interactive Input

   • Enter username/organization separately
   • Then enter repository name

Example Output

The tool generates a Markdown file with the format:

{repo_name}_repo_export_{timestamp}.md

Example: security_toolkit_repo_export_20250822_200405.md

📁 What Gets Exported

Included

• Source code files (.rs, .py, .js, .java, etc.)
• Configuration files (Cargo.toml, package.json, etc.)
• Documentation (README, LICENSE, etc.)
• Scripts and text files

Automatically Excluded

• Binary files and executables
• Build directories (target/, node_modules/, dist/)
• Version control (.git/)
• Large files (>1MB)
• System files (.DS_Store, Thumbs.db)

🎯 Use Cases

• Documentation: Create offline documentation of repository structure
• Code Review: Export repos for offline code review
• Archiving: Create snapshots of repositories at specific points in time
• Analysis: Prepare repositories for AI/ML analysis
• Teaching: Share complete repository contents in a single file

🛠️ Development

Project Structure

repo_exporter/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # Application entry point
│   ├── lib.rs           # Library exports
│   ├── config.rs        # Configuration management
│   ├── utils.rs         # Utility functions
│   ├── github/          # GitHub API integration
│   │   ├── client.rs    # API client implementation
│   │   └── types.rs     # API response types
│   ├── input/           # Input handling
│   │   └── parser.rs    # Repository input parsing
│   ├── ui/              # User interface
│   │   └── menu.rs      # Interactive menu system
│   └── export/          # Export functionality
│       └── markdown.rs  # Markdown export implementation
├── Cargo.toml           # Dependencies and metadata
├── .env.example         # Example environment configuration
├── .gitignore           # Git ignore rules
├── LICENSE              # MIT License
└── README.md            # Project documentation

Key Dependencies

• reqwest - HTTP client for GitHub API
• tokio - Async runtime
• base64 - Decode file contents from GitHub API
• chrono - Timestamp generation
• dotenvy - Environment variable management
• serde - JSON deserialization

🤝 Contributing

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

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📊 Performance

• Processes repositories with thousands of files efficiently
• Implements concurrent file fetching with rate limit respect
• Memory-efficient streaming for large files
• Automatic retry on transient failures

🔒 Security

• Never stores or logs your GitHub token
• Validates all user inputs
• Sanitizes file paths and names
• Respects GitHub API rate limits

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Rust 🦀
• Uses the GitHub REST API v3
• Inspired by the need for better repository documentation tools

📞 Contact

Author: Hans Eric Luiz Jingryd
GitHub: @tidynest
Email: tidynest@proton.me

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⭐ If you find this tool useful, please consider giving it a star on GitHub!