PasteMax

A modern file viewer application for developers to easily navigate, search, and copy code from repositories. Ideal for pasting into ChatGPT or your LLM of choice. Built with Electron, React, and TypeScript.

Overview

PasteMax is a simple desktop app built for developers using AI coding assistants. It makes sharing your code with LLMs easy, thanks to a smart file explorer with token counting, file filtering, quick copy, and a previewer. Select the files you need, skip binaries and junk, and get clean, formatted snippets ready for your LLM.

!PasteMax (https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c2eea45f-2696-4bfa-8eaf-a6b07e7ca522) !FilePreview (https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9bb9b6ff-b9cc-4655-b8a8-318f23c2e2b0) !ModelList (https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e045f4f0-1bdd-4a30-8696-b388d598dcc5)

Video

YouTube Link (https://youtu.be/YV-pZSDNnPo)

Features

📁 File Navigation & Management

• File Tree Navigation: Browse directories and files with an expandable tree view
• Search Capabilities: Quickly find files by name or content
• Sorting Options: Sort files by name, size, or token count
• File Change Watcher: Automatically updates the file list when files are added, modified, or deleted
• Manual Refresh: Option to perform a full directory re-scan when needed

🤖 AI-Ready Features

• Token Counting: View approximate token count for each file
• Model Context Limit: Select different models (Claude-3.7, GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5, etc.)
• Context Limit Warning: Get alerted when selections exceed the model's context limit

🔍 Content & Preview

• File Previewer: View file contents in a dedicated preview pane
• Selection Management: Select multiple files and copy their contents together
• Binary File Detection: Automatic detection and exclusion of binary files
• Smart File Exclusion: Auto-excludes package-lock.json, node_modules, etc.

💼 Workflow Enhancements

• Workspace Management: Save and load workspaces for quick directory access
• Automatic Update Checker: Stay current with the latest releases
• Dark Mode: Toggle between light and dark themes for comfortable viewing
• Cross-Platform: Available for Windows, Mac, Linux and WSL

Installation

Download Binary

Download the latest PasteMax version from the releases page (https://github.com/kleneway/pastemax/releases/latest).

Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/kleneway/pastemax.git
cd pastemax

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the app:

npm run build:electron
npm run package

Note: If you encounter issues with npm run package, you can try the platform-specific command:

npm run package:win
npm run package:mac
npm run package:linux

After successful build, you'll find the executable files inside the release-builds directory:

Windows:

• PasteMax Setup 1.0.0.exe - Installer version
• PasteMax 1.0.0.exe - Portable version

Mac:

• PasteMax 1.0.0.dmg - Installer version
• PasteMax 1.0.0.zip - Portable version

Linx:

• PasteMax 1.0.0.deb - Installer version (Deb package)
• PasteMax 1.0.0.rpm - Installer version (RPM package)
• PasteMax 1.0.0.AppImage - Portable version

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• npm or yarn

Running in Development Mode

To run the application in development mode:

# Start the Vite dev server
npm run dev

# In a separate terminal, start Electron
npm run dev:electron

Building for Production

To build the application for production:

# Build the React app with Vite and update paths for Electron
npm run build:electron

# Create platform-specific distributables
npm run package

Project Structure

• src/ - React application source code
  • components/ - React components
  • context/ - React context providers
  • hooks/ - Custom React hooks
  • types/ - TypeScript type definitions
  • utils/ - Utility functions
  • styles/ - CSS styles
  • assets/ - Static assets like images
• electron/ - Electron-Backend related files
  • main.js - Electron main process
  • preload.js - Preload script for secure IPC
  • renderer.js - Renderer process utilities
  • build.js - Build script for production
  • dev.js - Development script
  • excluded-files.js - Configuration for files to exclude by default
  • file-processor.js - File processing utilities
  • ignore-manager.js - Ignore pattern management
  • update-checker.js - Update checking functionality
  • update-manager.js - Update management
  • utils.js - Utility functions
  • watcher.js - File change watcher
• public/ - Public assets (favicon, etc.)
• scripts/ - Utility scripts for building and testing
• docs/ - Documentation

Libraries Used

• Electron - Desktop application framework
• React - UI library
• TypeScript - Type safety
• Vite - Build tool and development server
• tiktoken - Token counting for LLM context estimation
• ignore - .gitignore-style pattern matching for file exclusions
• chokidar - File Watcher

Troubleshooting

Getting "Warning: Not trusted" on Windows

If you see a warning about the app not being trusted, you can bypass this by clicking "run anyways". This is a common issue with Electron apps, especially since PasteMax is not signed.

Getting "App not responding" on Mac

If you encounter an "App not responding" message on Mac, it may be due to macOS security settings. You can try the following:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Security & Privacy.
3. Under the General tab, look for the "Allow apps downloaded from" section.
4. Look for "PasteMax" and click "Open Anyway".

Other Issues

If you encounter other issues, please report them on GitHub (https://github.com/kleneway/pastemax/issues).

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Star History ⭐

Star History Chart (https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=kleneway/pastemax&type=Date)