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Command Line Reference

This guide provides a comprehensive reference for the readme-ai CLI, including all available options and their descriptions.

Core Options

Option Short Values Default Description
--version -V - - Show the version and exit
--help - - - Show help message and exit
--repository -r TEXT - Repository URL (GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket) or local path (required)
--output -o TEXT README.md Output file path for the generated README

LLM Configuration

Option Short Values Default Description
--api - anthropic
gemini
ollama
openai
offline
openai LLM API service provider
--base-url - TEXT - Base URL for the LLM API service
--model -m TEXT varies by provider LLM model to use
--context-window -cw INTEGER - Maximum tokens for model’s context window
--rate-limit -rl 1-25 - Requests per minute for the LLM API
--temperature -t 0.0-2.0 0.7 Temperature for text generation
--top-p - 0.0-1.0 1.0 Top-p sampling probability
--system-message -sm TEXT - Custom system message for the LLM

Styling Options

Layout and Alignment

Option Short Values Default Description
--align -a center
left
right
left Alignment for README header sections
--header-style -hs ASCII
ASCII_BOX
BANNER
CLASSIC
CLEAN
COMPACT
CONSOLE
MODERN
CLEAN README header style template
--navigation-style -ns ACCORDION
BULLET
NUMBER
ROMAN
BULLET Navigation menu style for table of contents

Visual Elements

Option Short Values Default Description
--badge-color -bc TEXT - Primary color for badge icons (hex code or name)
--badge-style -bs default
flat
flat-square
for-the-badge
plastic
skills
skills-light
social
flat Visual style of badge icons
--logo -l ANIMATED
BLACK
BLUE
GRADIENT
ORANGE
METALLIC
PURPLE
RAINBOW
TERMINAL
CUSTOM
LLM
GRADIENT Project logo style
--logo-size -ls TEXT - Project logo size

Content Enhancement

Option Short Values Default Description
--emojis -e default
minimal
ascension
fibonacci
harmony
prism
quantum
monochrome
unicode
atomic
cosmic
crystal
earth
fire
forest
nature
water
gradient
rainbow
solar
fun
vintage
zen
random
default Emoji theme for header sections
--tree-max-depth -td INTEGER 3 Maximum depth of directory tree

File Processing

ReadmeAI automatically filters files during analysis to focus on relevant code and documentation.

Default Exclusions

The following file types and directories are excluded by default:

  • Development artifacts: __pycache__/, .pytest_cache/, node_modules/, .tox/
  • Build outputs: dist/, build/, htmlcov/
  • Version control: .git/, .svn/, .hg/
  • IDE files: .vscode/, .idea/
  • Binary files: *.exe, *.dll, *.so, *.pyc
  • Media files: *.jpg, *.png, *.mp4, *.gif
  • Archive files: *.zip, *.tar, *.gz

Custom File Exclusions

Create a .readmeaiignore file in your repository root to define custom exclusion patterns:

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# .readmeaiignore
*.log
temp/
!important.log
**/cache/

Pattern Support: - Exact filenames: config.yaml - Wildcards: *.log, temp* - Directories: logs/ (trailing slash) - Recursive: **/node_modules/ - Negation: !important.log (include despite other rules) - Comments: # This is a comment

Using Short Options

Many commands have short versions (e.g., -r instead of --repository). Use these for quicker typing in the terminal.

Default Values

When an option is not specified, readme-ai will use sensible defaults optimized for most use cases.

Custom Ignore Patterns

For detailed guidance on ignore patterns, see the File Exclusion Guide.