GitHub - hrudulmmn/crespo: Crisp Repos, Sharp AI

pip install crespo && crespo ./myproject

The Problem

When we paste the whole codebase to any LLM either it dosent understand fully or we hit the token limit. But when we try to give the context file by file it can't understand the relation between files and all these requires limited tokens that are wasted on making the AI understand the codebase rather than doing work.

Crespo solves this differently.

Instead of concatenating raw files, Crespo uses Tree-sitter AST parsing to extract only the structural aspects of your repository such as imports, classes, functions, module connections and generates a compact XML blueprint. This helps the AI understand better at the cost of a fraction of tokens.

Usage

# Structure mode (default)
crespo ./myproject

# Summary mode — requires Groq key
crespo ./myproject --mode summary --groq YOUR_KEY

# Save your Groq key for future runs
crespo --groq YOUR_KEY

# Concat mode — full source, redacted
crespo ./myproject --mode concat

# Analyse a GitHub repo directly
crespo --git https://github.com/user/repo

# Custom output filename
crespo ./myproject --output blueprint.xml

How It Works

your repo
    │
    ▼
 walker          respects .gitignore · skips tests · skips build artifacts
    │
    ▼
 tree-sitter     real AST parse · 10 languages · no regex
    │
    ▼
 extractor       imports · classes · functions · structs · enums
    │
    ▼
 blueprint XML   compact · structured · LLM-ready

Tree-sitter handles language grammar without failing on edge cases where regex fails.

Demo

Modes

Languages supported

Python · JavaScript · TypeScript · JSX · TSX · Rust · Go · Java · C · C++

Example output

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<repo n="kara" s="Gesture-controlled PDF viewer using PyQt6, MediaPipe, and OpenCV.">
  <meta>
    <dep>cv2,mediapipe,numpy,PyQt6,fitz,groq,markdown</dep>
  </meta>
  <files>
    <f p="Ui.py" e=".py" s="Main PyQt6 window coordinating PDF rendering, gesture input, and AI summarisation.">
      <imp>PyQt6,fitz,render,summarise,gesture,markdown</imp>
      <cls n="Window">
        <fn n="summary" p="(self)" />
        <fn n="startGest" p="(self, state)" />
        <fn n="gestZoom" p="(self, state: int)" />
      </cls>
    </f>
    <f p="gesture.py" e=".py" s="MediaPipe hand tracking with gesture classification and debouncing.">
      <imp>mediapipe,cv2,numpy</imp>
      <cls n="GestureController">
        <fn n="detect" p="(self, frame)" />
        <fn n="classify" p="(self, landmarks)" />
      </cls>
    </f>
  </files>
</repo>

Benchmarks

Tested on real open-source repositories. Structure accuracy evaluated by asking an LLM three questions from the blueprint alone — no access to the original source.

Structure mode accuracy

⚠️ Entry points are partially correct on framework-level repos (FastAPI, Flask) and convention-driven repos (Next.js) where the entry point is implicit rather than explicit. Architecture and dependency accuracy remains perfect across all tested repos.

Token reduction — structure mode

FastAPI (14% reduction) excluded from average — as a framework repo its structure IS the content. Crespo correctly preserves it rather than discarding it.

Framework-heavy repos compress slightly less because the preserved structure is genuinely useful as there is less noise to discard.

Token Counting is done using tiktoken python library.

Compression Depends on Repo Type

Security

Before writing anything in the concat mode, crespo scans the file body for secrets and then replaces them with [REDACTED].

It is still not perfect but captures common patterns such as:

• Quoted assignments — api_key = "...", token: '...'
• Raw .env style — GROQ_KEY=abc123
• Known key prefixes — Groq (gsk_), OpenAI (sk-), Anthropic (sk-ant-), GitHub (ghp_), AWS (AKIA), Slack (xox)

Groq Setup

Summary mode uses Groq to generate one-line descriptions per file and function. The free tier is more than enough.

# pass once — saved to ~/.crespo/config
crespo --groq YOUR_KEY

# all future summary runs pick it up automatically
crespo ./myproject --mode summary

Your key is stored locally at ~/.crespo/config and never sent anywhere except Groq's API.

Roadmap

• Something for Humans coming soon!
• More aggressive compression preset
• More language support (Ruby, PHP, Swift, Kotlin)
• .crespoignore support

Troubleshooting

crespo: command not found

This usually means Crespo was installed successfully, but the executable isn't on your system PATH.

Verify installation

python -m pip show crespo

If Crespo appears in the output but the crespo command still isn't recognized, it's a PATH issue

Follow the steps below for your OS.

Windows

Add your Python Scripts directory to PATH (typically):

C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python3x\Scripts

Restart your terminal afterwards.

macOS / Linux

Find your user scripts directory:

python3 -m site --user-base

Then add its bin folder to your shell configuration:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Restart your shell and try again.

Multiple Python installations

If you have multiple Python versions installed, make sure installation and execution use the same interpreter. Check which python/pip you're actually using:

where python      # Windows
which -a python3  # macOS / Linux

Reinstall using that same interpreter explicitly if needed:

python -m pip install --force-reinstall crespo

Recommended: use pipx

For CLI tools, pipx avoids most PATH-related issues entirely:

pipx install crespo
crespo ./myproject

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you have ideas for new output modes, better parsing, or additional language support, open an issue or PR.

License

MIT © Hrudul Krishna K V