:mega: Discussion: Default Output Behavior (Clipboard vs Unix-style stdout)

[ODAncona]

📣 What Should be the Default Output Behavior of Code2Prompt ? 📣

Current behavior

Right now, code2prompt defaults to copying the generated prompt into the clipboard:

• code2prompt . → clipboard
• code2prompt . - → stdout
• code2prompt . -O file → file

This is convenient for fast interactive workflows, but it is not standard Unix behavior (where stdout is usually the default).

---

Proposal A ( 🎉 ) : Keep current behavior (Clipboard-first)

👍 code2prompt . → clipboard
📤 code2prompt . - or code2prompt . -O - → stdout
💾 code2prompt . -O file → file

✅ Pros:

• Keeps backward compatibility for users.
• Fastest workflow for copy/paste use cases.

❌ Cons:

• Non-standard for Unix tooling.
• Surprising for new users expecting stdout by default.

Vote with: 🎉

---

Proposal B ( 🚀 ) : Switch to Unix-style behavior (Stdout-first)

👍 code2prompt . → stdout
📋 code2prompt . -c → clipboard
💾 code2prompt . -O file → file

✅ Pros:

• Standard Unix semantics.
• Plays better with piping/redirects.

❌ Cons:

• Breaking change for current users (default no longer clipboard).
• Requires re-training muscle memory.

Vote with: 🚀

---

Context & Transition Plan

To smooth the migration, we will introduce a user config file (~/.c2prc or ~/.c2pconfig) that allows setting the default output mode #101 .

Example:

# ~/.c2pconfig
default_output = clipboard   # or stdout or file

This way:

• We can safely switch the global default to Unix-style (stdout).
• Users who prefer clipboard as default can keep it by setting default_output = clipboard.
• No one loses their preferred workflow.
• Make more sense by default to be able to chain Code2Prompt with other unix tools

Few examples :

code2prompt . | tee | wl-copy
code2prompt . > output.txt
code2prompt . | grep "public static void main()"

---

VOTE

Please vote with

• 🎉 (keep clipboard default)
• 🚀 (move to stdout default)

and feel free to share your thoughts below !

[ODAncona]

@mufeedvh
@JackYoustra
@Qxy0happy
@123vivekr
@pwnwriter
@2bigO
@notdian
@perstarkse
@chenrui333
@deftdawg
@winterjung
@stewie22
@williamjameshandley
@reneleonhardt
@muescha
@lucasaamaral
@superjeffcplusplus
@jimburtoft
@markus1189
@SebaMat3
@livstyle
@Pipboyguy
@noczero
@Saimo
@ahonnecke
@sammcj