Ad hoc tools for gathering prompt context
But it is frustrating gathering context for big tasks. Navigating to and copying the code, data, and documentation so that I can paste it into the chat is not ideal.
Cursor and Copilot's chat features have better integration with codebases, but they don't let me control the context. From my quick tests, I get better results still by using ChatGPT or Claude directly (though it takes more effort).
Besides, I am often putting together context from a variety of sources (multiple repositories, web pages, images, logs, databases, etc.).
My first (naive) attempt was to make a VS Code extension that lets me select which functions, methods, or classes I want to copy to my clipboard.
However, it is fairly tedious to pick and choose which functions to copy each time. I use Promptclipper occasionally, but we can do better. The source is available on GitHub.
I wrote a zsh script for identifying the modified files in my current git repository, concatenating their contents, and placing it all in the clipboard.
