Files
The Files studio lets you mount local folders and desktop-synced drives, search their live contents, and preview an original without first copying it into memory. A mount begins read-only; you can separately scour it into memory or opt a folder into reviewable file-edit proposals.
Read-only is the default. Merely mounting or searching never changes a file. “Allow edits” permits the team to propose an exact diff for that mount, but nothing is written until you click Apply edit; the app then rechecks path containment, permission and source freshness.
▢ Mount a folder
Connect a local folder or a locally synced Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, or OneDrive path.
▢ Search across
Find downloaded files by name and supported indexed text; online-only files remain name-searchable.
▢ Preview originals
Open live text, tables, Word documents, Google files, or a PDF in place.
▢ Scour or edit
Deliberately distill a source into memory, or approve an exact proposed file diff.
What it is#
Files is the studio for documents available through your filesystem. You mount a local directory or a path managed by a desktop sync client, and Zimac builds a private search index while opening the live original on demand. Native Google files can be read when the Google session is connected; otherwise the studio links out and explains that their content is online.
Searching your files#
Search a mounted folder by keyword and the studio matches file names plus supported indexed text, preferring files that hit every keyword and falling back to the best partial matches. Each hit returns its source and, when text was indexed, a snippet. PDFs with an extractable text layer are full-text indexed; an encrypted, malformed, or image-only PDF degrades cleanly to filename-only search. A downloaded PDF can also be previewed in the embedded viewer up to 50 MB. Online-only files remain name-searchable until downloaded.
Reading a file#
Open one supported file and the team reads it fresh from disk, so it can review and quote the source rather than infer from a title. Word-family documents render as sandboxed rich HTML when the macOS textutil converter is available; on another platform or after a conversion failure they remain name-searchable and the Studio names the limitation. Markdown, CSV/TSV, JSON and HTML get native previews. PDFs use the embedded viewer and their text layer can also be read locally; encrypted and image-only PDFs return a specific extraction reason instead of invented text. A Google or online-only file reports the missing session or download instead of pretending it was read.
Drive & imports#
Mounting is distinct from importing: a mount searches files where they live. The mount's Scour action deliberately distills supported source text into deduplicated local memories, while Import stages a folder-wide ingestion flow. Use a plain mount for live lookup; use Scour or Import only when you want durable recall. For edits, first turn on Allow edits for that mount; every proposed creation or replacement still arrives as an exact diff with separate Apply and Dismiss controls.