TL;DR — Quick Summary
Tokei counts code, comments, and blanks by language across your project. Blazing fast, accurate, and supports 200+ languages — the modern cloc alternative.
Tokei tells you exactly what’s in your codebase — how many lines of code, comments, and blanks in each language. It’s the fastest way to get a bird’s-eye view of any project.
Installation
# macOS
brew install tokei
# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S tokei
# Cargo
cargo install tokei
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install tokeiUsage
# Count lines in current directory
tokei
# Output example:
# ===============================================================================
# Language Files Lines Code Comments Blanks
# ===============================================================================
# TypeScript 43 4521 3892 214 415
# CSS 8 892 754 42 96
# Astro 29 2134 1876 89 169
# JSON 12 456 456 0 0
# Markdown 15 234 0 178 56
# ===============================================================================
# Total 107 8237 6978 523 736
# Specific directory
tokei src/
# Filter by language
tokei -t=Rust,TypeScript
# Sort by code lines
tokei -s code
# Show per-file breakdown
tokei --files
# JSON output
tokei --output json > stats.json
# Multiple directories
tokei src/ tests/ scripts/
# Exclude paths
tokei --exclude '*.test.ts' --exclude vendor/Comparison
| Feature | Tokei | cloc | scc | loc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Very fast | Slow | Fast | Fast |
| Language | Rust | Perl | Go | Rust |
| Languages | 200+ | 250+ | 200+ | 200+ |
| .gitignore | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Nested comments | Yes | Some | Yes | No |
| JSON output | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Complexity | No | No | Yes | No |
Summary
- Tokei counts code, comments, and blanks by language — blazing fast in Rust
- Supports 200+ languages with accurate nested comment handling
- Respects .gitignore by default, skips generated and vendor files
- Export to JSON, YAML, TOML for CI/CD integration
- Per-file breakdown available with —files flag