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Context Management

Context in Plandex refers to files, directories, URLs, images, notes, or piped in data that the LLM uses to understand and work on your project. Context is always associated with a plan.

Changes to context are version controlled and can be branched.

Loading Context​

To load files, directories, directory layouts, urls, images, notes, or piped data into a plan's context, use the plandex load command.

Loading Files​

You can pass load one or more file paths. File paths are relative to the current directory in your terminal.

plandex load component.ts # single file
plandex load component.ts action.ts reducer.ts # multiple files

You can also load multiple files using glob patterns:

plandex load tests/**/*.ts # loads all .ts files in 'tests' and its subdirectories
plandex load * # loads all files in the current directory

You can load context from parent or sibling directories if needed by using .. in your load paths.

plandex load ../file.go # loads file.go from parent directory
plandex load ../sibling-dir/test.go # loads test.go from sibling directory

Loading Directories​

You can load an entire directory with the --recursive/-r flag:

plandex load lib -r # loads lib, all its files and all its subdirectories
plandex load * -r # loads all files in the current directory and all its subdirectories

Loading Directory Layouts​

There are tasks where it's helpful for the LLM to the know the structure of your project or sections of your project, but it doesn't necessarily need to the see the content of every file. In that case, you can pass in a directory with the --tree flag to load in the directory layout. It will include just the names of all included files and subdirectories (and each subdirectory's files and subdirectories, and so on).

plandex load . --tree # loads the layout of the current directory and its subdirectories (file names only)
plandex load src/components --tree # loads the layout of the src/components directory

Loading URLs​

Plandex can load the text content of URLs, which can be useful for adding relevant documentation, blog posts, discussions, and the like.

plandex load https://redux.js.org/usage/writing-tests # loads the text-only content of the url

Loading Images​

Plandex can load images into context.

plandex load ui-mockup.png

For the default GPT-4o model, png, jpeg, non-animated gif, and webp formats are supported. For other models, support for images in general, and particular formats specifically, will depend on the model.

Loading Notes​

You can add notes to context, which are just simple strings.

plandex load -n 'add logging statements to all the code you generate.' # load a note into context

Notes can be useful as 'sticky' explanations or instructions that will tend to have more prominence throughout a long conversation than normal prompts. That's because long conversations are summarized to stay below a token limit, which can cause some details from your prompts to be dropped along the way. This doesn't happen if you use notes.

Piping Into Context​

You can pipe the results of other commands into context:

npm test | plandex load # loads the output of `npm test`

Ignoring files​

If you're in a git repo, Plandex respects .gitignore and won't load any files that you're ignoring. You can also add a .plandexignore file with ignore patterns to any directory.

You can force Plandex to load ignored files with the --force/-f flag:

plandex load .env --force # loads the .env file even if it's in .gitignore or .plandexignore

Viewing Context​

To list everything in context, use the plandex ls command:

plandex ls

Removing Context​

To remove selectively remove context, use the plandex rm command:

plandex rm component.ts # remove by name
plandex rm 2 # remove by number in the `plandex ls` list
plandex rm 2-5 # remove a range of indices
plandex rm lib/**/*.js # remove by glob pattern
plandex rm lib # remove whole directory

Clearing Context​

To clear all context, use the plandex clear command:

plandex clear

Updating Context​

If files in context are modified outside of Plandex, you will be prompted to update them the next time you send a prompt. You can also update any outdated files with the update command.

plandex update # update files in context