rich-tree

Configuration

rich-tree is designed to work great out of the box with sensible defaults. All configuration is done through CLI flags — there is no configuration file at this time.

Note: A configuration file feature is planned for a future release. See the TODO for the roadmap.

Default Behavior

When you run rtree with no flags, the following defaults apply:

Setting	Default Value	Description
Directory	`.` (current directory)	The directory to visualize
Depth	Unlimited (`-1`)	Full recursive traversal
Excluded names	`venv,node_modules,.git,.history`	Common noise folders
Dotfiles	Hidden (except important ones)	Files starting with `.` are hidden
gitignore	Enabled	`.gitignore` rules are respected
File sizes	Not shown	Use `-ss` to enable
Timestamps	Not shown	Use `-sc`, `-sm`, `-sa` to enable
Git status	Not shown	Use `-sg` to enable
HTML export	Disabled	Use `-o PATH` to enable

Default Exclusion List

By default, these folder/file names are excluded from the tree:

Name	Reason
`venv`	Python virtual environment
`node_modules`	Node.js dependencies
`.git`	Git repository internals
`.history`	VS Code Local History plugin

To override the exclusion list entirely:

rtree --exclude dist,build,__pycache__

To keep defaults and add more, include the defaults explicitly:

rtree --exclude venv,node_modules,.git,.history,dist,build

To exclude nothing (show everything except gitignored/hidden):

rtree --exclude ""

Important Dotfiles — Always Shown

These dotfiles are considered “important” and are never hidden, even when running with --ignore-dot:

.gitignore
.gitattributes
.editorconfig
.env
.env.example
.env.local
.env.development
.env.production
.npmrc
.babelrc
.eslintrc
.eslintrc.json
.prettierrc
.vscodeignore

These files are always shown with full color and proper icons (not dimmed), even in directories that are otherwise “hidden”.

gitignore Configuration

rich-tree loads .gitignore files at every directory level it traverses and applies rules hierarchically — the same way git does.

Supported `.gitignore` Syntax

Pattern	Example	Matches
Literal name	`build`	Any file or directory named `build`
Wildcard	`*.log`	Any `.log` file anywhere
Directory-only	`dist/`	Only directories named `dist`
Root-anchored	`/output`	Only at the repository root
Negation	`!important.log`	Un-ignores the pattern
Deep wildcard	`**/temp`	`temp` at any depth

Disabling gitignore

rtree --no-gitignore

Disables all .gitignore parsing. All files that would normally be filtered are shown.

Combining Configuration

All options compose freely:

# Full control example:
rtree \
  --depth 4 \
  --exclude venv,node_modules,.git,dist,build \
  --no-gitignore \
  --show-size \
  --show-modified \
  --show-git \
  /path/to/project

Shell Aliases for Common Configurations

If you frequently use the same set of flags, consider setting up shell aliases for your most-used configurations:

Bash / Zsh:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

# Quick tree with sizes and git status
alias rtg="rtree -ss -sg"

# Shallow tree (2 levels) with sizes
alias rt2="rtree -d 2 -ss"

# Show everything
alias rta="rtree -a --no-gitignore"

Fish:

alias rtg="rtree -ss -sg"
alias rt2="rtree -d 2 -ss"
alias rta="rtree -a --no-gitignore"

Planned Configuration Features

The following configuration features are planned for future releases:

Configuration file (~/.config/rtree/config.toml or .rtreerc) to persist default flags
Per-project config (.rtree.toml in project root)
Onboarding wizard auto-detection — run wizard on first use if no config exists

See the TODO and GitHub Issues for updates.

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