The tree

sprout                     # current directory
sprout src -L 2            # flags go before or after the path
sprout -a                  # everything, hidden and ignored entries included

The tree ends with a summary line, like tree’s. It also counts anything Sprout hid:

15 directories, 15 files (4 hidden or ignored, --all to show)

What gets hidden

Inside a git repository, .gitignore decides. Sprout asks git for the tracked files plus the untracked files that aren’t ignored. Nested .gitignore files, negations and your global excludes all behave exactly as they do in git.

Outside git, Sprout hides common build and dependency folders instead: node_modules, dist, build, target, obj, coverage, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .cache, .next, .nuxt, .pytest_cache, .mypy_cache, .idea, .vscode, .DS_Store and *.egg-info.

In both cases dotfiles are hidden and .git is never shown.

Flag	Effect
--hidden	Show dotfiles
--no-ignore	Skip .gitignore, .sproutignore and the built-in list
-a, --all	Both of the above

Filtering

--ignore, --only and .sproutignore all use gitignore syntax. The flags can be repeated or comma-separated.

Pattern	Matches
*.log	Any .log file at any depth (no slash means match the name)
src/gen	Exactly src/gen, from the root (a slash anchors it)
build/	Directories named build only
docs/**/*.png	PNGs anywhere under docs (** crosses folders)
!keep.log	Brings back something an earlier pattern hid (the last match wins)

sprout --only '*.go' --ignore '*_test.go'     # Go sources, no tests
sprout --only 'web/src/**/*.tsx'               # one part of a frontend
sprout --changed-within 2d                     # files modified in the last two days
sprout --max-files 5                           # at most 5 files per folder, then "… 37 more files"

• --only removes folders it leaves empty.
• --changed-within accepts 30m, 12h, 7d, 2w or any Go duration.
• A .sproutignore in the target directory applies its patterns on every run.

Everything these hide is counted in the summary line.

Sizes and sorting

sprout --size -L 1                   # folder totals, du-style
sprout --size --sort size -L 2       # largest first
sprout --sort time -r                # oldest first
sprout --dirs-first --size --si      # folders first, powers of 1000

Folder totals are true totals. When -L collapses a folder, Sprout still measures everything inside it without listing it. Sorting by size or time works the same way, so a collapsed folder sorts by what it contains.

Sizes are shown du -h style (4.2K, 1.3M) in powers of 1024, or powers of 1000 with --si.

Clickable names

--hyperlink makes each name a link to the file in terminals that support OSC 8, such as iTerm2, WezTerm, Kitty, GNOME Terminal and Windows Terminal. Links are only written when output goes to a terminal. Add --hyperlink to your config to always have them.

Colors

Directories, change marks and hotspots are colored when output goes to a terminal. Pipes and files get plain text, and NO_COLOR or TERM=dumb turns color off.