diff --git a/app/utils/dirs_to_json.c b/app/utils/dirs_to_json.c
index 12a04854..f14bc246 100644
--- a/app/utils/dirs_to_json.c
+++ b/app/utils/dirs_to_json.c
@@ -8,63 +8,63 @@ struct zsv_dir_foreach_to_json_ctx {
 };
 
 static int zsv_dir_foreach_to_json(struct zsv_foreach_dirent_handle *h, size_t depth) {
-  if(!h->is_dir) {
-    struct zsv_dir_foreach_to_json_ctx *ctx = h->ctx;
-    h->ctx = ctx->zsv_dir_filter.ctx;
-    if(ctx->zsv_dir_filter.filter(h, depth) && !ctx->err) {
-      char suffix = 0;
-      if(strlen(h->parent_and_entry) > 5 && !zsv_stricmp((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen(h->parent_and_entry) - 5, (const unsigned char *)".json"))
-        suffix = 'j'; // json
-      else if(strlen(h->parent_and_entry) > 4 && !zsv_stricmp((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen(h->parent_and_entry) - 4, (const unsigned char *)".txt"))
-        suffix = 't'; // text
-      if(suffix) {
-        // for now, only handle json or txt
-        FILE *f = fopen(h->parent_and_entry, "rb");
-        if(!f)
-          perror(h->parent_and_entry);
-        else {
-          // create an entry for this file. the map key is the file name; its value is the file contents
-          unsigned char *js = zsv_json_from_str((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen((const char *)ctx->parent_dir) + 1);
-          if(!js)
-            errno = ENOMEM, perror(NULL);
-          else if(*js) {
-            if(ctx->count > 0)
-              if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, ",", 1))
-                ctx->err = 1;
-            if(!ctx->err) {
-              ctx->count++;
-              if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, js, strlen((const char *)js)) || zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, ":", 1))
-                ctx->err = 1;
-              else {
-                switch(suffix) {
-                case 'j': // json
-                  if(zsv_jq_parse_file(ctx->zjq, f))
-                    ctx->err = 1;
-                  break;
-                case 't': // txt
-                  // for now we are going to limit txt file values to 4096 chars and JSON-stringify it
-                  {
-                    unsigned char buff[4096];
-                    size_t n = fread(buff, 1, sizeof(buff), f);
-                    unsigned char *txt_js = NULL;
-                    if(n) {
-                      txt_js = zsv_json_from_str_n(buff, n);
-                      if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, txt_js ? txt_js : (const unsigned char *)"null", txt_js ? strlen((const char *)txt_js) : 4))
-                        ctx->err = 1;
-                    }
+  struct zsv_dir_foreach_to_json_ctx *ctx = h->ctx;
+  h->ctx = ctx->zsv_dir_filter.ctx;
+  if(!ctx->zsv_dir_filter.filter(h, depth))
+    h->no_recurse = 1; // skip this node (only matters if node is dir)
+  else if(!h->is_dir) { // process this file
+    char suffix = 0;
+    if(strlen(h->parent_and_entry) > 5 && !zsv_stricmp((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen(h->parent_and_entry) - 5, (const unsigned char *)".json"))
+      suffix = 'j'; // json
+    else if(strlen(h->parent_and_entry) > 4 && !zsv_stricmp((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen(h->parent_and_entry) - 4, (const unsigned char *)".txt"))
+      suffix = 't'; // text
+    if(suffix) {
+      // for now, only handle json or txt
+      FILE *f = fopen(h->parent_and_entry, "rb");
+      if(!f)
+        perror(h->parent_and_entry);
+      else {
+        // create an entry for this file. the map key is the file name; its value is the file contents
+        unsigned char *js = zsv_json_from_str((const unsigned char *)h->parent_and_entry + strlen((const char *)ctx->parent_dir) + 1);
+        if(!js)
+          errno = ENOMEM, perror(NULL);
+        else if(*js) {
+          if(ctx->count > 0)
+            if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, ",", 1))
+              ctx->err = 1;
+          if(!ctx->err) {
+            ctx->count++;
+            if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, js, strlen((const char *)js)) || zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, ":", 1))
+              ctx->err = 1;
+            else {
+              switch(suffix) {
+              case 'j': // json
+                if(zsv_jq_parse_file(ctx->zjq, f))
+                  ctx->err = 1;
+                break;
+              case 't': // txt
+                // for now we are going to limit txt file values to 4096 chars and JSON-stringify it
+                {
+                  unsigned char buff[4096];
+                  size_t n = fread(buff, 1, sizeof(buff), f);
+                  unsigned char *txt_js = NULL;
+                  if(n) {
+                    txt_js = zsv_json_from_str_n(buff, n);
+                    if(zsv_jq_parse(ctx->zjq, txt_js ? txt_js : (const unsigned char *)"null", txt_js ? strlen((const char *)txt_js) : 4))
+                      ctx->err = 1;
                   }
-                  break;
                 }
+                break;
               }
             }
           }
-          free(js);
-          fclose(f);
         }
+        free(js);
+        fclose(f);
       }
     }
-    h->ctx = ctx;
   }
+  h->ctx = ctx;
   return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/include/zsv/utils/dirs.h b/include/zsv/utils/dirs.h
index 7627e83f..5fa746df 100644
--- a/include/zsv/utils/dirs.h
+++ b/include/zsv/utils/dirs.h
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ int zsv_foreach_dirent(const char *dir_path,
                        );
 
 struct zsv_dir_filter {
-  zsv_foreach_dirent_handler filter; /* filter function; return 1 to process this node */
+  zsv_foreach_dirent_handler filter; /* filter function; return 1 to process this node. if node is dir, return 0 to skip entirely */
   size_t max_depth;                  /* max depth to recurse */
   void *ctx;                         /* pointer to pass to filter function */
 };