tree2dir

Paste an ASCII directory tree, get real folders and files in seconds.

Copy a tree-style listing from a README, an AI answer, or your own notes — tree2dir turns it into an actual directory structure on disk.

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs
│   └── config.rs
├── tests/
│   └── integration_test.rs
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

↓

$ tree2dir --file structure.txt
✔  Successfully generated structure!
  ├── 📁 my-app
    ├── 📁 src
      ├── 📄 main.rs
      ├── 📄 config.rs
    ├── 📁 tests
      ├── 📄 integration_test.rs
    ├── 📄 .gitignore
    ├── 📄 README.md
Done in 2.5ms. Created 3 directories and 4 files.

Русская версия: README.ru.md

---

Features

• Three input modes — interactive TUI, Unix pipe, or --file.
• Any indentation style — box-drawing characters (│├└─), plain spaces, tabs, or output straight from the tree command. Depth is measured in Unicode scalar values, not bytes, so mixed indentation styles at the same visual depth are handled correctly.
• Smart directory detection — a trailing /, or simply having nested children in the tree, is enough; no need to annotate every folder.
• Safe by default — refuses to write outside the target directory (path-traversal guard), skips existing files unless --force is passed, and supports --dry-run to preview without touching disk.
• Fast — typical trees build in single-digit milliseconds.

Install

cargo install tree2dir

Or download a prebuilt binary from the Releases page for Linux, macOS, or Windows.

Usage

Interactive TUI (default)

Run with no arguments inside a real terminal:

tree2dir

Paste or type your tree, then press Enter to build it in the current directory.

Pipe mode

cat structure.txt | tree2dir

File mode

tree2dir --file structure.txt --output ./my-project

Flags

Flag	Description
-f, --file <PATH>	Read the tree from a file instead of stdin/TUI
-o, --output <DIR>	Target directory (default: current directory)
--dry-run	Show what would be created, without touching disk
--force	Overwrite files that already exist
-y, --yes	Skip the confirmation prompt
--no-tui	Never launch the TUI, even in an interactive terminal

TUI keybindings

Key	Action
Enter	Confirm and build the structure
Shift+Enter / Alt+Enter	Insert a newline while editing
Ctrl+V	Paste from the system clipboard
Ctrl+E	Load the built-in example tree
Ctrl+R	Clear the input buffer
Esc / Ctrl+C	Quit without writing anything to disk
Arrow keys, Home, End	Move the cursor
Backspace, Delete	Edit text

How the parser works

Indentation is measured by counting Unicode scalar values (.chars().count()) in the leading whitespace/box-drawing prefix of each line — not raw bytes. This matters because │ is 3 bytes in UTF-8 while a space is 1 byte; byte-length comparisons would misjudge depth. Counting scalars instead means a │-based prefix and an equivalent-width space-based prefix are always treated as the same depth, regardless of locale or terminal font.

A line is classified as a directory if either:

1. its name ends with /, or
2. the next non-blank line in the input is indented one level deeper (i.e. it has children).

Otherwise it's treated as a file. This means trailing slashes are optional — raw tree command output (which usually omits them) parses correctly out of the box.

Security

Before writing anything to disk, every resolved path is checked against the output root: entries can't use .., an absolute path, or a Windows drive prefix to escape the target directory. This is checked both on the raw path segment and on the final joined path, so it holds even if a segment slips past the first check.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/NiZaMinius/tree2dir.git
cd tree2dir
cargo build --release
cargo test

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome — see Discussions for questions or ideas before opening a PR. Please run cargo fmt and cargo clippy -- -D warnings before submitting.

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.