# Files and folders

Find your way around Files, make or upload a file where it belongs, and find it again.

Last updated 6 November 2026

**Files** holds the documents, tables, pages and uploads a workspace shares. People read and edit them in Cabane; agents read and write the same files through their tools. This guide goes from the first screen of Files to a new file in the right folder, then covers finding a file again and choosing where work belongs.

## 1. Open Files

1. Choose **Files** in the row of icons under the room list.

Files opens on an overview of the workspace. A **Charter** card comes first, with the opening lines of the workspace's charter and **Read the charter**. Under it is one box per top-level folder: the folder's name, its description when it has one, and **Recently updated**, the four files in it that changed last, each with the subfolder it sits in, who changed it and when. A folder with nothing in it reads "Nothing in it yet." The last box, **Not in a folder**, lists the files kept at the top level.

The bar above the page holds **Back** on the left, then the workspace's name, and on the right **Search files**, **Upload** and the tree icon, **Open file tree**. Choose **Open file tree** to browse the folders and files, and choose it again to close the tree.

Figure: The Files overview: the workspace's charter card, then a box per top-level folder listing the four files in it that changed last

## 2. Open a folder

1. Choose a folder's name at the head of its box. A file in the box's list opens that file straight away.

A folder's page starts with its charter card when the folder has an `ABOUT.md`, then **Recently updated** and a strip of what the folder holds: folders first, then files, newest first. The bar now names the folder, and that name is a menu: the folder's **References**, **Activity**, **Rename** and more.

A folder inside a folder opens in the strip rather than on a page of its own. The strip's heading becomes a path, such as **Folders › interviews**, a dashed **Back** tile leads, and the rest of the tiles are that folder's contents. Choose **Back** or press Escape to climb back out. A folder that holds a single file is drawn as that file, and opens it.

Figure: A folder's page: Recently updated, then the strip of what the folder holds, with a subfolder opened inside it behind a Back tile

Rooms have their own pages in Files. Open the **rooms** box and a row of folder tabs runs along the top, one per shared room; a private room's tab carries a lock. Choose a tab to open that room's files. The row stays in place on the room's page, so you can move from room to room.

**Back** in the bar goes one view back: from a file, to the page you opened it from.

## 3. Make or upload a file

1. On a folder's page, choose **New**, then **Folder** or **File**.
2. The new item appears first in the strip with its name selected. Type a name. For a file, the existing `.md` extension is outside the selection: to make a table or page, select the whole filename and replace it with one ending in `.csv` or `.html`.
3. Press Enter to create it, or Escape to cancel. Nothing is made until you press Enter.

A new folder stays where it is. A new file opens at once, empty and ready to write in. A file name with no extension gets `.md`. Keep the suggested name twice and the second becomes **Untitled folder 2**. With a subfolder open in the strip, **New** makes the item inside that subfolder.

| File type | How it opens |
| --- | --- |
| Markdown (`.md`) | An editable document |
| CSV (`.csv`) | An editable table |
| HTML (`.html`) | A working page or small app |
| Image or PDF | A preview |
| Other files | Stored files you can download |

To upload, choose **Upload**, then **Files…** or **Folder…**, or drop files or a folder onto the folder's page. If an upload has the same name as an existing file, choose whether to keep both, replace it or skip the upload.

The overview has no **New**. A new top-level folder comes from **Upload → Folder…**, or from an agent you ask to create it, saying where it belongs.

## Find a file

Choose **Search files** in the bar of any Files page. The tree opens with a search field at the top, and as you type it narrows to the files and folders whose names contain your words, each shown with its folder, such as **research / pricing-notes.md**. Choose one to open it. When no name matches, the tree says so.

In the tree's search field, press Escape once to clear the words and again to end the search. When the tree opens in a popover, as it does in a narrower window, you can also end the search by choosing the tree icon again or clicking outside the popover.

To search inside files instead, choose the last row, **Find "…" inside files in …**. It opens Cabane's search over the folder you are in, with your words already typed, and finds files by what they say. Press Escape to close that search and return to the tree's results.

## Find history and related work

Open a file's name in the bar for its menu: **Versions**, **Activity** and **References**, the conversations that mention it. **Download** is in the same menu. To let someone outside the workspace read a file, deliberately enable a [share link](https://cabane.ai/docs/share-links) with **Share…**.

## Choose a home for the work

Use a **conversation folder** for one piece of work, a **room folder** for material that room keeps using, and a workspace folder for material shared more broadly. Message attachments go into their conversation's folder. Files doesn't list conversation folders: open the conversation and choose **Files in this conversation** to see its files ([Messages and mentions](https://cabane.ai/docs/messages-and-mentions#files-in-this-conversation)).

Room folders also hold their `ABOUT.md` charters. Agents have their own charter folders, and `skills` folders hold reusable procedures.

A file's location affects access. Public room and workspace files are shared across the workspace. Private room and direct-message files are available only to their members; workspace ownership doesn't bypass that rule.

Figure: The workspace tree and who can read each part: workspace files and public rooms for everyone, a private room for its members, conversation folders reached from their conversations, and the agents and skills folders

Check the destination before moving private material into a public folder. Conversation references to a file survive a move or rename. Agents working with private material are limited to the private room of their current turn.

## Bring local work into Cabane

An agent can also create files on their device. Those files don't upload automatically and have no Cabane search results or version history.

When the team needs the result, ask the agent to save or upload it to the workspace and name the destination folder.