Install yek with Homebrew, Nix, scoop

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• yek

Project history

The mohsen1/yek repository was created on 2025-01-11, right as developer tooling around LLM context packaging was becoming its own small software category. The name means "one" in Persian, matching the tool's core idea of turning many project files into one consumable context file.

The README shows the project's early design priorities: use .gitignore rules, infer additional binary or large-file ignores, use Git history to decide which files are more important, stream when output is piped, process multiple directories, support globs, and optionally read a `yek.yaml` configuration file.

Subsequent documentation expanded the tool from simple concatenation into a configurable context generator with token caps, JSON output, line numbers, custom output templates, tree-only/tree-header modes, priority rules, binary extension overrides, and alternative config formats.

Adoption history

Yek saw fast adoption for a young CLI because it landed in a timely niche: packaging repository context for LLMs. The GitHub repository has thousands of stars, the project was discussed on Reddit and Hacker News, and it appears in Rust/LLM tool lists and package indexes such as Cargo/lib.rs, Homebrew, Nix, and Scoop.

Its adoption is practical rather than institutional: developers use it when a repository is too large or too scattered to paste manually, but they still want a local, inspectable text artifact rather than a hosted indexing service.

How it is used

The basic workflow is to run `yek` at a repository root and receive a generated file path, or pipe the output directly into a clipboard or another command. Users can pass files, directories, multiple roots, or quoted glob patterns, and can cap output with options such as `--max-size` or `--tokens`.

For repeatable project behavior, users add `yek.yaml`, `yek.toml`, or `yek.json` with ignore patterns, unignore patterns, output settings, priority rules, binary extensions, and Git-based priority tuning. That makes it useful in AI coding workflows where the same repository context needs to be regenerated often.

Why package nerds care

Yek is package-nerd significant because it is part of the post-LLM wave of repository-to-context tools, but implemented as a small native CLI rather than a web service. That makes package-manager availability especially useful: developers can install it next to Git and editors and keep data local.

It also shows a new kind of packaging demand: tools whose main job is not compiling, linting, or deploying code, but preparing source trees for machine consumption.

Timeline

• 2025-01-11: The mohsen1/yek repository is created.
• 2025-01: The project is shared as a Rust tool for serializing code repositories for LLM consumption on Reddit and Hacker News.
• 2025: The README documents Git-aware file prioritization, .gitignore handling, streaming output, glob support, and `yek.yaml` configuration.
• 2025: Package availability expands through ecosystems including Homebrew, Cargo/lib.rs, Nix, and Scoop.
• 2026-06-29: GitHub release activity shows continuing maintenance into mid-2026.

Related projects

• Related tools include Repomix, gitingest, onefilellm, repo2file, repo2txt, project-context generators, clipboard-based LLM workflows, Git, ripgrep-style file discovery, and local RAG/context-pack tooling.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/mohsen1/yek
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/yek
• https://github.com/mohsen1/yek
• https://lib.rs/crates/yek
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42753302
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mohsen1/yek/main/README.md
• https://waylonwalker.com/using-yek/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1i4oeg9/yek_serialize_your_code_repo_or_part_of_it_to/