renamify plan

The plan command generates a detailed plan of all changes that will be made without modifying any files. This is the first step in Renamify’s two-phase workflow.

Usage

renamify plan <OLD> <NEW> [PATHS]... [OPTIONS]

Arguments

<OLD> - Old identifier to replace
<NEW> - New identifier to replace with
[PATHS]... - Search paths (files or directories)

Options

Output Control

--preview <FORMAT> - Human-readable preview format: table (default), diff, matches, summary, none
--output <FORMAT> - Terminal output format for scripting: summary (default), json
--plan-out <PATH> - Where to save the plan (default: .renamify/plan.json)
--dry-run - Only show preview, don’t write plan file

Note: The plan is always saved to .renamify/plan.json (or the path specified by --plan-out) regardless of the --output format. The --output json flag only controls what’s displayed in the terminal.

File Processing

--include <PATTERNS> - Only process files matching these glob patterns
--exclude <PATTERNS> - Skip files matching these glob patterns
--no-rename-files - Don’t rename matching files
--no-rename-dirs - Don’t rename matching directories
--no-rename-paths - Don’t rename files or directories (equivalent to —no-rename-files —no-rename-dirs)

Case Styles

--exclude-styles <STYLES> - Exclude specific case styles from the default set
--include-styles <STYLES> - Add additional case styles to the active set
--only-styles <STYLES> - Use only these case styles, ignoring defaults

Match Control

--exclude-match <PATTERNS> - Skip specific matches (e.g., compound words to ignore)
--exclude-matching-lines <REGEX> - Skip matches on lines matching this regex pattern (e.g., ^// for comments, (TODO|FIXME) for todo markers)

Acronym Handling

--no-acronyms - Disable acronym detection and transformation
--include-acronyms <ACRONYMS> - Add custom acronyms to detect (e.g., “API,URL”)
--exclude-acronyms <ACRONYMS> - Exclude specific acronyms from detection
--only-acronyms <ACRONYMS> - Only use these acronyms, ignore defaults

Atomic Mode

“Atomic” means treating a search or replace identifier as a single unit, not splitting it into separate components. E.g. GitHub → github, not git_hub

--atomic-identifiers - Treat both search and replace terms as indivisible units
--atomic-search - Only treat search term as atomic
--atomic-replace - Only treat replace term as atomic
--no-atomic-identifiers - Disable atomic mode (override config)
--no-atomic-search - Disable atomic for search term
--no-atomic-replace - Disable atomic for replace term

Display Options

--fixed-table-width - Use fixed column widths in table output for consistent formatting

Unrestricted Mode

-u - Disable .gitignore files
-uu - Disable all ignore files, include hidden files
-uuu - Disable all ignore files, include hidden files, process binary files

Output Formats

Table Format (Default)

renamify plan getUserName fetchUserProfile

Shows a clear table view of all changes:

Files to modify: 12
┌─────────────────────────────────────┬──────────┬────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
│ File                                │ Lines    │ Old                │ New                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ src/auth.js                         │ 23, 45   │ getUserName        │ fetchUserProfile    │
│ src/types.ts                        │ 8        │ GetUserName        │ FetchUserProfile    │
│ utils/helpers.py                    │ 156      │ get_user_name      │ fetch_user_profile  │
└─────────────────────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

Files to rename: 3
┌─────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Current Path                        │ New Path                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ src/getUserName.js                  │ src/fetchUserProfile.js             │
│ components/GetUserName.tsx          │ components/FetchUserProfile.tsx     │
│ tests/get_user_name.test.py         │ tests/fetch_user_profile.test.py    │
└─────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┘

Diff Format

renamify plan getUserName fetchUserProfile --preview diff

Shows changes in diff format:

--- src/auth.js
+++ src/auth.js
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 function authenticateUser(token) {
-    const username = getUserName(token);
+    const username = fetchUserProfile(token);
     return validateUser(username);
 }

JSON Format

renamify plan getUserName fetchUserProfile --output json

Displays structured JSON to the terminal for scripting/piping:

{
  "id": "a3b7c9d4e8f2a6b1",
  "created_at": "1734567890",
  "old": "getUserName",
  "new": "fetchUserProfile",
  "matches": [
    {
      "file": "src/auth.js",
      "line": 23,
      "old_text": "getUserName",
      "new_text": "fetchUserProfile"
    }
  ],
  "renames": [
    {
      "old_path": "src/getUserName.js",
      "new_path": "src/fetchUserProfile.js"
    }
  ]
}

Examples

Basic Planning

# Create a plan with table preview (default)
renamify plan old_name new_name

# Plan is saved to .renamify/plan.json
cat .renamify/plan.json

# Or specify specific paths
renamify plan old_name new_name src/ tests/

Dry Run (No Plan File)

# Just see what would change, don't create a plan file
renamify plan old_name new_name --dry-run

Atomic Mode

# Treat compound words as single units
renamify plan DocSpring FormAPI --atomic-identifiers

# Only search term is atomic
renamify plan DocSpring form_api --atomic-search

# Only replace term is atomic
renamify plan doc_spring FormAPI --atomic-replace

Excluding Lines by Pattern

# Skip matches in comment lines (starting with //)
renamify plan old_name new_name --exclude-matching-lines '^//'

# Skip matches in lines containing TODO or FIXME
renamify plan old_name new_name --exclude-matching-lines '(TODO|FIXME)'

# Combine with other options
renamify plan old_name new_name \
  --exclude-matching-lines '^\\s*#' \  # Skip Python comments
  --exclude-styles kebab \              # Don't generate kebab-case variants
  --preview diff                        # Show as diff

Custom Plan Location

# Save plan to a specific location
renamify plan old_name new_name --plan-out ./renamify-plan.json

Specific File Types

# Only plan changes for Rust files using paths
renamify plan old_name new_name src/ lib/

# Or use include patterns for more control
renamify plan old_name new_name --include "**/*.rs"

# Plan for source files, exclude tests
renamify plan old_name new_name \
  --include "src/**/*.{js,ts}" \
  --exclude "**/*test*"

Case Style Control

# Only plan camelCase and snake_case transformations
renamify plan oldName newName --only-styles camel,snake

# Exclude SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE from default styles
renamify plan oldName newName --exclude-styles screaming-snake

Large Codebase Planning

# Include gitignored files (like vendor directories)
renamify plan old_name new_name -u

# Plan for everything (including hidden files)
renamify plan old_name new_name -uu

Plan File Structure

The generated plan file (.renamify/plan.json) contains:

{
  "id": "7f3a2b5c9d1e8f4a",
  "created_at": "1734567890",
  "old": "original_pattern",
  "new": "replacement_pattern",
  "styles": ["snake", "kebab", "camel", "pascal", "screaming-snake"],
  "includes": ["**/*"],
  "excludes": ["target/**", "node_modules/**"],
  "matches": [
    {
      "file": "relative/path/to/file.js",
      "line": 42,
      "column": 10,
      "old_text": "matched_text",
      "new_text": "replacement_text",
      "context": "surrounding context for verification"
    }
  ],
  "renames": [
    {
      "old_path": "old/file/path.js",
      "new_path": "new/file/path.js",
      "is_dir": false
    }
  ],
  "stats": {
    "files_scanned": 1247,
    "files_to_modify": 23,
    "files_to_rename": 5,
    "directories_to_rename": 2,
    "total_matches": 89
  }
}

After Planning

Once you have a plan, you can:

Apply the Plan

renamify apply

Review Before Applying

# Look at the plan in detail
cat .renamify/plan.json | jq .

# Count total changes
jq '.stats.total_matches' .renamify/plan.json

Modify the Plan

Advanced users can edit the plan file directly before applying (not recommended for beginners).

Create a New Plan

Running plan again will overwrite the existing plan file.

Exit Codes

0 - Plan created successfully
1 - Conflicts detected in planned changes
2 - Invalid input or arguments
3 - Internal error or system issue

Performance Tips

For large codebases:

Use specific --include patterns to limit scope
Use --exclude to skip large directories like node_modules/
Consider using -u flags judiciously to include necessary ignored files