cloc

name	cloc
description	Count lines of code, analyze codebase size and composition, compare code between versions. Use when the user asks about lines of code, codebase size, language breakdown, or code statistics.
argument-hint	[path or git ref]

Prerequisites

Before running cloc, check if it is installed:

which cloc

If not found, install it:

• macOS: brew install cloc
• npm: npm install -g cloc
• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install cloc
• Red Hat/Fedora: sudo yum install cloc

About cloc

cloc counts blank lines, comment lines, and physical lines of source code in 200+ programming languages. It can analyze files, directories, archives (tar, zip, .whl, .ipynb), and git commits/branches.

Common Usage

Count a directory (default: current project):

cloc .

Count using git file list (respects .gitignore):

cloc --vcs=git

Count a specific path:

cloc $ARGUMENTS

Count by file (detailed breakdown):

cloc --by-file --vcs=git

Diff between two git refs:

cloc --git --diff <ref1> <ref2>

Exclude directories:

cloc --exclude-dir=node_modules,vendor,.git .

Output Formats

Use these flags for machine-readable output:

• --json — JSON
• --yaml — YAML
• --csv — CSV
• --md — Markdown table
• --xml — XML

Useful Flags

Flag	Purpose
--by-file	Per-file breakdown instead of per-language
--vcs=git	Use git to get file list (respects .gitignore)
--git	Treat arguments as git targets (commits, branches)
--diff <a> <b>	Show added/removed/modified lines between two sources
--exclude-dir=<d1,d2>	Skip directories
--exclude-lang=<l1,l2>	Skip languages
--include-lang=<l1,l2>	Only count these languages
--force-lang=<lang>,<ext>	Map file extension to a language
--processes=N	Parallel processing (N cores)
--quiet	Suppress progress output

Guidelines

• Prefer --vcs=git over bare . to avoid counting generated/vendored files
• Use --json when the user needs to process the output programmatically
• When comparing versions, use --git --diff <ref1> <ref2>
• For large repos, consider --processes=N to speed things up