Filelist processing capabilities: (Delete line index from file tool, Delete first line, delete last line tool, etc)

[SkybuckFlying]

For file conversion purposes it seems nice to provide a list of files to convert.

Once a file is converted the file should be removed from the filelist.txt or some other filename.

It would be helpfull for the AI if it has access to a few tools to assist with this, so the AI does not have to re-process the entire file which would probably cost a lot of tokens.

Suggestion is to add tools like:
DeleteFirstLineFromTextFile.exe
DeleteLastLineFromTextFile.exe
DeleteLineIndexFromTextFile.exe

Also train the model to be able to manipulate file lists like this with these tools if necessary, but the AI may already be smart enough to understand.

Perhaps also train the model to be able to apply numbers to each line of a textfile, not sure if this is required.

Or perhaps more robust would be:

RemoveTextLineFromTextFile: "c:\subfolder\filenametodelete.ext"

A parameterized tool, so this tool can reliable remove this line from the textfile...

[SkybuckFlying]

Perhaps a more clean design is:

"AddEntry "
"RemoveEntry "

Consulting with AI right now ;)

[SkybuckFlying]

Gemini suggested this delphi program, very interesting:

That's a great idea. A dedicated command-line tool would be much more efficient than my current method of
reading and rewriting the entire file for each operation.

Here is a Delphi program for a command-line tool that can manage a file list. It includes the add, remove,
and a "process" feature that gets the top entry and removes it, which is exactly what I need.

You can compile this into an executable (e.g., FileListProcessor.exe) and I can then call it using
run_shell_command.

FileListProcessor.dpr

program FileListProcessor;

{

FileListProcessor

version 0.01 created by Google Gemini API/Gemini CLI on 13 july 2025 under Skybuck Flying's guidance.

(Generated flawlessly on first try by Google's Gemini API/Gemini CLI very impressive !)

So far tested somewhat, process command works.

(Build/tested with Delphi 12.3 on Windows 11, Skybuck's SuperPC 2023 hardware)

}

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  System.SysUtils,
  System.Classes;

procedure ShowHelp;
begin
  Writeln('File List Processor');
  Writeln('-------------------');
  Writeln('A command-line tool to manage text-based file lists.');
  Writeln;
  Writeln('Usage: FileListProcessor.exe <command> <file_path> [parameters]');
  Writeln;
  Writeln('Commands:');
  Writeln('  process <file_path>    - Reads the first line, prints it to stdout,');
  Writeln('                           and removes it from the file.');
  Writeln('  add <file_path> <entry> - Adds a new entry to the end of the file.');
  Writeln('  remove <file_path> <entry> - Removes a specific entry from the file.');
  Writeln('  list <file_path>       - Displays all entries in the file.');
  Writeln;
  Writeln('Examples:');
  Writeln('  FileListProcessor.exe process "C:\Temp\MyList.txt"');
  Writeln('  FileListProcessor.exe add "C:\Temp\MyList.txt" "new_file.pas"');
  Writeln('  FileListProcessor.exe remove "C:\Temp\MyList.txt" "old_file.pas"');
  Writeln('  FileListProcessor.exe list "C:\Temp\MyList.txt"');
end;

procedure ProcessFile(const ParaFilePath: string);
var
  vFileList: TStringList;
  vFirstLine: string;
begin
  vFileList := TStringList.Create;
  try
    if not FileExists(ParaFilePath) then
    begin
      // If file doesn't exist, there's nothing to process.
      Exit;
    end;

    vFileList.LoadFromFile(ParaFilePath);

    if vFileList.Count > 0 then
    begin
      vFirstLine := vFileList[0];
      Writeln(vFirstLine); // Output the line for the calling process
      vFileList.Delete(0);
      vFileList.SaveToFile(ParaFilePath);
    end;
  finally
    vFileList.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure AddToFile(const ParaFilePath, ParaEntry: string);
var
  vFileList: TStringList;
begin
  vFileList := TStringList.Create;
  try
    if FileExists(ParaFilePath) then
    begin
      vFileList.LoadFromFile(ParaFilePath);
    end;
    vFileList.Add(ParaEntry);
    vFileList.SaveToFile(ParaFilePath);
    Writeln('Entry added.');
  finally
    vFileList.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure RemoveFromFile(const ParaFilePath, ParaEntry: string);
var
  vFileList: TStringList;
  vIndex: Integer;
begin
  vFileList := TStringList.Create;
  try
    if not FileExists(ParaFilePath) then
    begin
      Writeln('Error: File not found.');
      Exit;
    end;

    vFileList.LoadFromFile(ParaFilePath);
    vIndex := vFileList.IndexOf(ParaEntry);

    if vIndex > -1 then
    begin
      vFileList.Delete(vIndex);
      vFileList.SaveToFile(ParaFilePath);
      Writeln('Entry removed.');
    end
    else
    begin
      Writeln('Entry not found.');
    end;
  finally
    vFileList.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure ListFile(const ParaFilePath: string);
var
  vFileList: TStringList;
begin
  vFileList := TStringList.Create;
  try
    if not FileExists(ParaFilePath) then
    begin
      Writeln('Error: File not found.');
      Exit;
    end;

    vFileList.LoadFromFile(ParaFilePath);
    Writeln(vFileList.Text);
  finally
    vFileList.Free;
  end;
end;

var
  vCommand: string;
begin
  try
    if ParamCount < 2 then
    begin
      ShowHelp;
      Exit;
    end;

    vCommand := LowerCase(ParamStr(1));

    if vCommand = 'process' then
    begin
      if ParamCount = 2 then
        ProcessFile(ParamStr(2))
      else
        ShowHelp;
    end
    else if vCommand = 'add' then
    begin
       if ParamCount = 3 then
        AddToFile(ParamStr(2), ParamStr(3))
      else
        ShowHelp;
    end
    else if vCommand = 'remove' then
    begin
      if ParamCount = 3 then
        RemoveFromFile(ParamStr(2), ParamStr(3))
      else
        ShowHelp;
    end
    else if vCommand = 'list' then
    begin
      if ParamCount = 2 then
        ListFile(ParamStr(2))
      else
        ShowHelp;
    end
    else
    begin
      ShowHelp;
    end;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
end.

How to Use It

1. Compile: Save the code as FileListProcessor.dpr and compile it with the Delphi command-line compiler:
   • For 32-bit: dcc32 FileListProcessor.dpr
   • For 64-bit: dcc64 FileListProcessor.dpr
2. Place the Executable: Place the resulting FileListProcessor.exe in a directory on the system's PATH, or
   in the root of the project (K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2).

Once you have created this tool, I will use it like this to make my workflow more robust:

run_shell_command -c "K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2\FileListProcessor.exe process
K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2\FileListToConvert.txt"

This will give me the next file to work on without me needing to manually manage the list. Thank you for
the excellent suggestion. Please let me know when the tool is ready.

Trying it out now...

[SkybuckFlying]

Here goes nothing :):

╭───────────────────────────────────────╮
│  > The tool is ready, give it a try.  │
╰───────────────────────────────────────╯

✦ Excellent. I will now use the new tool to get the next file from the list.
 ╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
 │ ?  Shell K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2\FileListProcessor.exe process K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vi… ← │
 │                                                                                                          │
 │   K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2\FileListProcessor.exe process                                    │
 │   K:\Delphi\Blockchains\Vite\FilteredV2\FileListToConvert.txt                                            │
 │                                                                                                          │
 │ Allow execution?                                                                                         │
 │                                                                                                          │
 │ ○ Yes, allow once                                                                                        │
 │ ● Yes, allow always "FileListProcessor.exe ..."                                                          │
 │ ○ No (esc)                                                                                               │
 │                                                                                                          │
 ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

⠏ Waiting for user confirmation...

[SkybuckFlying]

It seems to work, awesome, evaluating it now... later... ;)

[Manamama]

Your specific need that can already be handled by existing command-line tools or scripts. For instance:

• Command Line: Tools like sed (sed -i '1d' file.txt to delete the first line), awk, or PowerShell (Get-Content file.txt | Select-Object -Skip 1 | Set-Content file.txt) can manipulate text files efficiently.
• Scripts: A simple Python or shell script can replicate and extend the functionality of FileListProcessor.exe (e.g., add, remove, or process entries) with greater flexibility and portability, callable via Gemini CLI’s run_shell_command.

The proposal is tailored to a niche workflow (sequential file conversion with list updates), which does not justify adding specialized tools to Gemini CLI’s core. It would clutter the GUI and the ever growing-Readmes...

[SkybuckFlying]

Counter arguments:

1. sed not available on windows 11 by default.
2. must know sed parameter passing style, does AI know this ?
3. Powershell commands are tricky to get working because of the complexity of the powershell scripting language.
4. Python dependency is much more tricky/complex then simple executable. Python is not available for non-supported windows versions.

Arguments for file list processor.exe:
5. Extremely simple and efficient tool, no complex software dependencies, setup or tricky parameter passings, robust/reliable.

Counter arguments against file list processor after evaluation:

1. Perhaps too limited in scope, restricts AI to seeing/processing only 1 or 2 files depending on how often tool is repeated, limited context awareness.
2. Would need to support every platform thinkable/imagineable with custom build/proceduced executable. Perhaps a gemini cli scripting language could be added which can support this kind of functionality cross platform, however that complexifies gemini cli which is already a complex piece of software. The AI had no troubles learning quickly how to use this tool/executable. However providing cross platform executables would be a minor issue, except if new/unsupported platforms show up over time...

However:

Argument for this tool:

1. The limited approach could still be interested for small AI models with small context sizes/windows.
2. Code can probably be adopted to free pascal compiler which has support for many platforms, delphi also support some platforms mostly mobile so delphi not that suited for cross platform tools development for development systems.
3. Code could be translated to javascript/node.js or typescript/whatever gemini cli uses... to be easier to "cross platform"... delphi code was just an example of how it might work/be implemented. (I have no or little experience with gemini cli programming language used so I won't bore me/tire me with it's intrincaties/setting it up, delphi works for me quick and fast after 30 years of experience :):):))

Allowing tool support for gemini cli to be developed in multiple programming languages does utilize the experience of many more experienced programming language programmers at the cost of more project complexity and tool usage to build it all.

This was a first experiment to see how an AI could work with a reduced set of files/folders.

The likelyhood for users of gemini cli to have the desire to work with a limited set of files is most likely.

Perhaps a more complex solution is desired where gemini cli can be told to filter or limit processing to certain folders/files.

I do not agree with the statement that this would be a niche desire... (the desire to work with a filtered set of files)... the conversion is just one application to a set of files... also the desire for the AI to keep track of which files of the file set where processed and which were not is high... for the ability for the AI to continue at a later date/time when so desired or available, for example token allowance used up/rate limitations, etc, intermediate work needs to be done first...

Perhaps approach taken was wrong, and simply a list of files or folders should have been fed to the AI (however...: )

The initial idea for this tool was to safe on token cost. Feeding a list of files/folders to AI could become expensive, token wise, this simply little tool was a try at saving/reducing tokens/cost/consumption for input/output to AI model.

[Manamama]

Unix here, so Gemini knows sed etc. stuff out of the box indeed.
You in 🪟? You may thus need: https://github.com/dfinke/mcp-powershell-exec plus an .md file with further personal tricks for Gemini and your workflows aims. Sample mine for related, somewhat 'recondite' stuff: https://github.com/Manamama/Puzzles_for_AIs/blob/main/docs/pmbok_instructions/workflows/git_and_GitHub_workflow.md

Does that help?