What it does
Tokei is a command-line utility that reports source-code statistics grouped by language. It counts files, lines, code, comments, and blanks, and can inspect one directory or several. Its ignore-file support helps skip generated or irrelevant paths; Tokei is a code counter, not a measure of quality, test coverage, or developer effort.
Point Tokei at a source directory with tokei ./foo to get a language-by-language summary. The official README shows that form and supports multiple paths in one call. Tokei also respects .gitignore and .ignore files, while --exclude adds specific paths to skip. The output can help a maintainer understand the rough size and composition of a repository before a migration or review, but the counts do not explain complexity or maintenance effort. Tokei is distributed under both MIT and Apache License 2.0 terms, as listed in its repository.
Strengths
- Groups code, comments, blank lines, and file totals by detected language.
- Can scan multiple paths and respect ignore files or explicit exclusions.
- The project is dual-licensed under MIT and Apache License 2.0.
Watch out for
- Line and file counts describe repository size, not correctness, test coverage, or code quality.
- Results depend on the paths and exclusions supplied, so generated or vendored directories may need review.
Best for
- Maintainers estimating the language mix of a repository before a migration or cleanup.
- Quick source-tree summaries that do not require a hosted analytics service.
Sources
- Tokei | XAMPPRocky/tokei (Oct 25, 2026)
- README.md | XAMPPRocky/tokei (Oct 25, 2026)
- LICENCE-MIT | XAMPPRocky/tokei (Oct 25, 2026)
- LICENCE-APACHE | XAMPPRocky/tokei (Oct 25, 2026)