[Feature Request]: Supports selection of folders

[jinzhongjia]

This is useful in large projects, vscode supports adding all files within a folder to the context of ai

If you think this is a useful feature, I'm willing to launch pr

[hanipcode]

I think for now if you want you can create a custom slash command ?

[jinzhongjia]

I would like to ask if agree to use it as the preset slash command

[olimorris]

This was asked recently in #1252 but I'll copy and paste my answer again because it's a common ask:

I'd recommend you look to use VectorCode. Throwing all your files into the context isn't the most optimum way of working with an LLM.

[hanipcode]

I think there might be some use cases for adding directory.
but I think instead of the directory as the context, I think it is better for it for just a tool that add all file in the folder to the chat context ( so we can delete things we don't need)

because adding directory use case is not only for adding all files from the root path.

In a language which the module is usually grouped into a folder (like golang), it might make sense lets say I am currently working on a package user_service then I want to add the user_service folder.

in some case where the project is simple enough and related files are grouped by folder might even reduce the need to create a workspace group for each folder (minus the ability to add the custom rule/prompt though)

other use case I can think of in a bigger project, if many of the files is needed for the AI context then can add the folder project and delete things I don't need

https://github.com/hanipcode/nvim/blob/main/lua/hanipcode/local/filesharer.lua#L8 I create this helper to do what I just mentioned.

for example in my oil.nvim config I has a mapping that when I press q it add the file if the entry under a cursor a file and it add the whole directory if the entry under the corser is a directory
https://github.com/hanipcode/nvim/blob/main/lua/hanipcode/plugins/oil.lua#L10

[olimorris]

other use case I can think of in a bigger project, if many of the files is needed for the AI context then can add the folder project and delete things I don't need

What's the difference between doing a multiple select in Telescope or Snacks with /file versus adding files and manually removing them?

2025-04-16.19_26_45.-.WezTerm.mp4

In the above I've filtered down to the directory I need and can then cherry pick the files I need based on my knowledge of the project.

[hanipcode]

ooh I just noticed that we can do multiple select with /file. my bad for missing that from the docs. I think it should suffice for most cases. maybe if "select all" mapping is built in the picker then it can count as "adding folder" in some case

for me though, why it is not suffice is because my company project is a large monorepo containing 3 Next.js app. and there are many folder and file with the same name, and sometime the picker search is too fuzzy. for example, we have the convention to use _hooks for hooks folder, and even though I search for <module_name>/_hooks it still result in file from other folder.

so directory selector will help in case like this because it might be easier to add the directory, and then cherry pick by deleting context instead. other way to solve this is that I can think of is maybe to configure or use different telescope's sorter.

but I still prefer to just navigate to the file in the folder, open oil, up 1 directory and then add the folder from oil though 😅

[jinzhongjia]

Great, I don't know if telecope and snack can select multiple files, so I have no problem