Copy folders like a pro — straight from VS Code!
Copy Mania is a lightweight Visual Studio Code extension that lets you right-click any folder and instantly copy all its files (or export them to markdown) in a structured, easy-to-read format — perfect for sharing code with AI tools like ChatGPT, refactoring help, or documentation.
I often needed to paste several related files into ChatGPT to debug or refactor code.
Doing that manually was messy — switching between files, copying snippets, and organizing them.
So I thought, “What if VS Code could do that in one click?”
That’s how Copy Mania was born.
- 🗂️ Right-click any folder → copy or export its contents
- 🔁 Option to include or exclude subfolders
- 🧩 Automatically ignores unwanted folders and files: node_modules, .git, dist, build, .env, lock files, images, etc.
- 🧠 Outputs everything as structured markdown, e.g.:
--- file: src/index.js ---
```js
console.log("Hello World");- 📋 Copy directly to clipboard or save as
.mdfile - ⚙️ Fully customizable ignore list in VS Code settings
- TypeScript
- VS Code API
- Node.js (fs, path)
- Regex-based filtering & recursive directory traversal
- Clone the repo or open it in VS Code.
- Press
F5to run the extension in Extension Development Host. - Right-click on any folder in the Explorer →
Select “Copy Folder (Structured)” or “Copy Top-Level Only.” - Choose between:
- 📋 Copy to Clipboard
- 💾 Export to Markdown
Copy Mania automatically skips files and folders that are usually unnecessary, sensitive, or large, including: .env, .env.*, node_modules, .git, dist, build, package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml
It also ignores binary or media files such as: *.png, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.gif, *.svg, *.ico, *.pdf, *.zip, *.tar, *.gz, *.rar, *.mp3, *.mp4, *.mov, *.avi, *.webm, *.wav
This helps:
- ⚡ Keep the output lightweight
- 🔒 Prevent accidental exposure of secrets or large assets
- ✨ Focus only on code and text-based files
All ignore patterns are customizable under: Settings → Extensions → Copy Mania → Ignore Names
- Publish to VS Code Marketplace
- Add light/dark icons
- Option to include/exclude file types manually
- (Future) Direct integration with AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)
Dev Joshi
📬 LinkedIn
💡 “Just a dev having fun automating the small stuff.”
MIT License © 2025 Dev Joshi
A simple and customizable VS Code extension that lets you copy entire folder contents (with structure) into markdown — perfect for sharing or pasting into LLMs.