Smart Tree is a blazingly fast, AI-friendly directory visualization tool that's 10-24x faster than traditional
tree
. Now with Spicy TUI mode for cyberpunk-cool directory browsing, Smart Tips, and MCP Hook Management! Built with Rust for maximum performance and featuring revolutionary compression algorithms.
Feature | Description | Command |
---|---|---|
🌶️ Spicy TUI | Interactive terminal UI with fuzzy search & M8 caching | st --spicy |
💡 Smart Tips | Helpful hints that appear at the top | st --tips on/off |
🎣 MCP Hooks | Programmatic Claude Code hook management | Via MCP tools |
🎸 Marqant Compression | 70-90% markdown compression | mq compress file.md |
🌊 SSE Streaming | Real-time directory monitoring | st --sse |
🧬 M8 Identity | Filesystem verification & caching | m8 init |
🌲 Tree-Sitter | AST-aware code editing | st --mode edit |
# Install Smart Tree (choose your method)
# Option 1: Homebrew (builds from source)
brew install --HEAD --formula https://raw.githubusercontent.com/8b-is/smart-tree/main/Formula/smart-tree.rb
# Option 2: Install script (downloads binary)
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/8b-is/smart-tree/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
# Option 3: Cargo (builds from source)
cargo install --git https://github.com/8b-is/smart-tree --tag v5.2.0 st
# 🎉 Experience the magic!
st # Classic tree view
st --spicy # 🌶️ NEW: Spicy interactive TUI mode!
st --mode ai --compress # AI-optimized (80% smaller)
st --mode quantum # Quantum compression (100x smaller!)
st --search "TODO" # Lightning-fast content search
Experience directory browsing like never before with our cyberpunk-inspired terminal UI:
st --spicy
- 🔍 Dual-Mode Search:
/
- Search file names with fuzzy matchingCtrl+F
- Search file content across the tree
- 🌲 Tree Navigation: Navigate like a file tree!
←/h
- Collapse directory or go to parent→/l
- Expand directory or enter↑↓/jk
- Navigate up/down
- 💾 M8 Context Caching: Directory contexts cached with quantum wave signatures
- 🎨 Syntax Highlighting: Beautiful code previews with search highlighting
- 🖼️ ASCII Art: Image previews converted to ASCII (requires
artem
) - 🌊 Quantum Wave Signatures: Each search result saved with unique signature
- Navigation:
j/k
or↑↓
- Move selection up/downh/l
or←→
- Collapse/expand directories (tree navigation!)Enter
- Open selected item
- Search Modes:
/
- Fuzzy search file namesCtrl+F
- Search content within filesEsc
- Exit search mode
- Features:
Ctrl+H
- Toggle hidden filesCtrl+S
- Save search results to M8 context?
orF1
- Toggle help overlayq
orEsc
- Quit
Smart Tree now shows helpful tips at the top of the output!
st --tips off # Disable tips
st --tips on # Re-enable tips
- Tips appear on first run, then randomly every 10-20 runs
- Detects cool terminals (256color, iTerm, Alacritty, etc.) for fancy formatting
- State persisted in
~/.st/tips_state.json
- 15+ different tips about Smart Tree features
Example tip:
──── 🚀 Speed tip - Use --mode quantum for 100x compression! ─── --tips off ───
Control Claude Code hooks programmatically via MCP tools:
// List all hooks
hooks {operation:'list'}
// Enable Smart Tree context hook
hooks {operation:'set', hook_type:'UserPromptSubmit', enabled:true}
// Test a hook
hooks {operation:'test', hook_type:'UserPromptSubmit', input:'analyze /src'}
The hooks provide:
- 🌳 Automatic directory context when paths are detected
- 🧠 MEM8 consciousness searching for relevant memories
- 📦 Git repository context
- ✨ All controlled programmatically via MCP!
Directory Size | tree |
exa --tree |
Smart Tree | Speedup |
---|---|---|---|---|
Small (100 files) | 15ms | 25ms | 2ms | 7.5x |
Medium (10K files) | 450ms | 380ms | 35ms | 12.8x |
Large (100K files) | 4.8s | 3.2s | 198ms | 24.2x |
Massive (1M files) | 45s | 28s | 1.9s | 23.7x |
- 30+ MCP Tools: Comprehensive toolkit for AI assistants
- Token-Efficient Formats: 70-90% reduction in token usage
- Quantum Compression: Revolutionary format achieving 100:1 compression
- Semantic Analysis: Understands code structure and relationships
- Context Preservation: Maintains session state between interactions
- Classic (
--mode classic
): Traditional tree view - AI-Optimized (
--mode ai
): Compressed for LLM context windows - Quantum (
--mode quantum
): Maximum compression using wave functions - Markdown (
--mode markdown
): Beautiful documentation format - JSON/CSV/TSV: Structured data formats
- Mermaid (
--mode mermaid
): Flowchart diagrams
- Content Search: Lightning-fast regex search across files
- Git Integration: Shows repository status inline
- Streaming Mode: Handles millions of files efficiently
- MCP Server: Model Context Protocol for AI assistants
- Memory System: Preserves context across sessions
# Direct formula installation (no tap needed!)
brew install --HEAD --formula https://raw.githubusercontent.com/8b-is/smart-tree/main/Formula/smart-tree.rb
git clone https://github.com/8b-is/smart-tree
cd smart-tree
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/st /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp target/release/mq /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp target/release/m8 /usr/local/bin/
Download pre-built binaries from releases
st # Current directory, depth 3
st /path/to/dir -d 5 # Specific path, depth 5
st --all # Show hidden files
st --size-sort # Sort by file size
st --mode ai --compress # Token-efficient format
st --mode quantum # Maximum compression
st --mode summary-ai # Ultra-compressed summary
st --mcp # Run as MCP server
st --search "TODO" # Search file contents
st --type rs # Only Rust files
st --pattern "test_*" # Glob pattern matching
st --modified 7d # Files modified in last 7 days
st --git-aware # Show git status
st --mode stats # Directory statistics
st --stream # Streaming mode for huge directories
st --claude-save # Save session consciousness
Smart Tree provides 30+ tools via Model Context Protocol:
st --mcp-config >> ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
overview
: Quick project understandingfind
: Powerful file discoverysearch
: Content search with contextanalyze
: Deep code analysisedit
: AST-aware code editinghistory
: Track file changesmemory
: Anchor insights for recallhooks
: Manage Claude Code hooks- And many more!
export ST_DEFAULT_DEPTH=5 # Default tree depth
export ST_COLOR=always # Force colors
export ST_NO_ICONS=1 # Disable emoji icons
export ST_MAX_FILE_SIZE=10M # Skip large files
Create ~/.config/smart-tree/config.toml
:
[display]
default_depth = 5
show_hidden = false
use_icons = true
color_mode = "auto"
[performance]
max_buffer_size = "100MB"
thread_count = 8
use_streaming = true
[mcp]
enabled = true
port = 3000
Revolutionary markdown compression achieving 70-90% size reduction:
mq compress README.md # Compress single file
mq aggregate docs/ # Compress directory
mq decompress file.mq # Restore original
Wave-function based compression for maximum efficiency:
- 100:1 compression ratios
- Preserves semantic meaning
- Self-describing format
- Progressive decompression
git clone https://github.com/8b-is/smart-tree
cd smart-tree
cargo build --release
cargo test
cargo test # Unit tests
./scripts/test_all.sh # Integration tests
cargo bench # Performance benchmarks
Contributions welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md
Created by the 8b-is team with contributions from:
- 8bit-wraith: Core architecture & performance
- Claude: AI integration & MCP tools
- Omni: Quantum compression algorithms
- Community: Features, bugs, and inspiration
MIT License - see LICENSE for details
Made with ❤️ and Rust
Website • Issues • Discussions