A Smarter Way to Prepare Context for LLMs

We’re excited to announce clip4llm v1.1.0, released on January 24, 2026. This release introduces a powerful new scoped configuration system that gives you fine-grained control over how files are processed when preparing prompts for large language models.

If you’ve ever wanted different rules for different parts of your project—like excluding markdown everywhere except your docs folder, or allowing larger files in specific directories—this update is for you.

What’s New

Recursive .clip4llm Configuration Files

The headline feature in v1.1.0 is support for recursive scoped configurations. You can now place .clip4llm files in any directory of your project, and clip4llm will automatically apply the right rules based on where each file lives.

Think of it like .gitignore, but for LLM context preparation.

How It Works

Configuration layers stack as clip4llm traverses your directory tree:

  1. Defaults (built-in values)
  2. Home config (~/.clip4llm)
  3. Project root (where you run the command)
  4. Nested directories (as it descends)
  5. CLI flags (always win)

Scalar values like delimiter and max-size use “last writer wins”—the closest config overrides parent scopes. List values like include and exclude accumulate additively, building up patterns as you go deeper.

The Best Part: Include Can Rescue from Exclude

Scoped include patterns can override parent directory exclude rules. This means you can exclude markdown files everywhere except specific folders:

project/
├── .clip4llm          # exclude *.md (exclude markdown everywhere)
├── docs/
│   └── .clip4llm      # include README.md (rescue it for documentation)
└── api/
    └── .clip4llm      # max-size=128 (allow larger files in API specs)

With this setup, *.md files are excluded everywhere except docs/README.md, and files under api/ can be up to 128KB while others stay at the default 32KB limit.

Enhanced Pattern Matching

Pattern matching now supports both basename patterns (like *.md) and path-based patterns (like docs/* or api/specs/*.json). This gives you precise control over which files get included based on their location in your project structure.

Comprehensive Test Coverage

This release includes a major expansion of our test suite with 424 new lines of tests covering config merging, pattern matching, stack operations, and deeply nested configurations. We’re committed to building clip4llm we can trust.

Why It Matters

Preparing context for LLMs is rarely one-size-fits-all. Different parts of a codebase have different needs:

  • Documentation folders might want markdown files included while the rest of your project excludes them
  • API specifications often need larger file size limits than typical source code
  • Test directories might require completely different rules from production code
  • Third-party dependencies should generally be excluded, but maybe not in a docs/examples folder

Before v1.1.0, you had one global config and CLI flags. Now you can express these nuanced requirements naturally, right where they make sense in your directory structure.

This is particularly powerful for:

  • Monorepos with multiple projects needing different rules
  • Documentation workflows where certain folders need special treatment
  • Complex projects with mixed file types and size requirements
  • Team environments where standardization matters but local flexibility helps

Getting Started

Upgrading

If you already have clip4llm installed, upgrading to v1.1.0 is straightforward:

# Install from source
go install github.com/UnitVectorY-Labs/clip4llm@v1.1.0

# Or download the pre-built binary for your platform from the GitHub releases page

No migration is needed—existing .clip4llm files continue to work exactly as before. The new recursive behavior is opt-in by placing additional .clip4llm files in subdirectories.

Quick Start

  1. Create a .clip4llm file in your project root: ```yaml exclude:
    • “*.txt”
    • node_modules/* ```
  2. Add a nested config to override for specific folders: ```yaml

    docs/.clip4llm

    include:

    • “*.md” max-size: 64 ```
  3. Run clip4llm as usual: 
    clip4llm

For full documentation on configuration options and patterns, check out the README on GitHub.

Transparency Note

This release announcement was AI-generated using the unsloth/Qwen3.5-122B-A10B-GGUF:Q4_K_M model. It was created based on the v1.1.0 release of the clip4llm repository (UnitVectorY-Labs/clip4llm), published on January 24, 2026. The article content is derived from the research conducted on the actual release changes and commits.

If you spot any inaccuracies or have suggestions for improvement, please file an issue at https://github.com/UnitVectorY-Labs/release-storyteller. Written by release-storyteller.