fix: surface unreadable files as estimated tokens instead of 0

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
 All notable changes to this project are documented here, following
 [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/) and semantic versioning.
 
+## [0.1.15] - 2026-09-17
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Surface unreadable files (e.g. EACCES / mode-000) as estimated tokens from their
+  known size instead of reporting them as clean 0-token sources.
+
 ## [0.1.14] - 2026-09-16
 
 ### Fixed

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "ctxtrim",
-  "version": "0.1.14",
+  "version": "0.1.15",
   "description": "Trim what bloats your AI coding context. Scan a repo, find the high-cost/low-value files ballooning your Claude Code / Cursor / Codex context, and write ignore files to cut token cost. Zero dependencies.",
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {

src/scan.js

@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@ function fileInfo(abs, size) {
       closeSync(fd);
       text = buf.toString("utf8", 0, bytesRead);
     }
-  } catch { return { tokens: 0, sample: "" }; }
+  } catch {
+    // Unreadable (e.g. EACCES): don't silently drop it — surface an estimate from the known size.
+    return { tokens: Math.ceil((size || 0) / 4), sample: "" };
+  }
   let tokens = estimateTokens(text);
   if (bytesRead && bytesRead < size) tokens = Math.round(tokens * (size / bytesRead)); // scale partial reads
   return { tokens, sample: text.slice(0, 4000) };

test/ctxtrim.test.js

@@ -122,6 +122,37 @@ test("scan includes symlinked source files", (t) => {
   assert.deepEqual(result.files.map((file) => file.rel).sort(), ["linked.py", "real.py"]);
 });
 
+test("scan surfaces unreadable (EACCES) files with estimated tokens, not silent 0", (t) => {
+  const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "ctxtrim-unreadable-"));
+  t.after(() => rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true }));
+
+  writeFileSync(join(root, "locked.txt"), "x".repeat(200_000));
+
+  const readFileSync = fs.readFileSync;
+  t.mock.method(fs, "readFileSync", (abs) => {
+    if (String(abs).endsWith("locked.txt")) {
+      const err = new Error("EACCES: permission denied");
+      err.code = "EACCES";
+      throw err;
+    }
+    return readFileSync(abs);
+  });
+  syncBuiltinESMExports();
+
+  let result;
+  try {
+    result = scanRepo(root);
+  } finally {
+    t.mock.restoreAll();
+    syncBuiltinESMExports();
+  }
+
+  const file = result.files.find((f) => f.rel === "locked.txt");
+  assert.ok(file, "unreadable file should be present in the scan");
+  assert.ok(file.tokens > 0, `unreadable file silently reported as 0 tokens, got ${file.tokens}`);
+  assert.ok(result.totals.totalTokens >= file.tokens, "unreadable file should count toward totals");
+});
+
 test("scan finds trimmable bloat and keeps source", () => {
   const s = scanRepo(repo);
   assert.ok(s.totals.trimTokens > 0);