Files and the editor

Files shows your vault as a tree, with the files you open as tabs beside it. Notes open in an editor that writes plain Markdown: the same files Obsidian, or any other editor, sees. Files sits at the right of the Projects view, so a note and a chat about it can be side by side.

Opening Files

• The Files button, the grey circle at the top right of a chat, opens it. So does Cmd+\ on a Mac or Ctrl+\ on Windows.
• From the Meetings view, the same button or keys open Files and switch to the Projects view.
• Opening a note from anywhere opens it in Files: a link, a citation in an answer, or Open after the assistant saves a note.

Along the top of the pane:

• ≡ hides or shows the tree;
• Search in files searches inside your notes and meetings;
• More has New note, New folder, Refresh and Show the vault folder;
• Fill the window spreads Files over everything but the sidebar, for reading or writing at length, and Back beside the chat undoes it;
• Close Files closes the pane.

What the tree shows

The Meetings folder starts open, with each meeting as a folder of its files. Beside it are your other folders and notes: Notebooks, Skills, People, Dictionary and your own. A Dictionary list opens in the editor like any note; the Dictionary page in the sidebar is the easier way to edit it (see The Dictionary).

• Listed: folders, Markdown notes, PDFs, Word files (.docx), PowerPoint decks (.pptx), plain-text files such as .txt, .csv or .json, and pictures.
• Not listed:
  • folders whose names start with a dot, such as .obsidian, .git and .samurai;
  • the Profiles and Scripts folders, which have their own editors;
  • in a meeting’s folder, the files whose names start with _: the recordings and the app’s record of the meeting.

If your vault is a folder inside another notes folder, such as your Obsidian vault, Include Parent Folder in Settings → AI Apps → Folder Access makes Files show the folder around it too. See Folder access.

Opening files and tabs

• One click opens a file as the preview tab, in italics. The next single click replaces it.
• A double click, or editing the file, keeps the tab open. A preview tab’s right-click menu also has Keep open.
• A tab’s right-click menu has Close and Close others, and, for a meeting’s files, Open in the meeting. A middle click or the × closes a tab.
• Your tabs come back when you next open the app.

What opens where:

• A note opens in the editor.
• A meeting’s transcript and documents open as the meeting shows them, editable there.
• A meeting’s folder, hovered, shows an arrow, Open the meeting.
• PDFs, Word files, decks, text files and pictures open in their own app on your computer.

With the keyboard, once you’ve clicked in the tree:

• ↑ and ↓ move through it, → opens a folder and ← closes it;
• Enter opens a file and keeps its tab;
• F2 renames;
• Delete deletes. On a Mac, Backspace and Cmd+Backspace do too.

Filtering and searching

The box above the tree reads “Filter, ? to search, # for a tag”.

• Type a name to list the files, and the meetings, whose names contain it.
• Start with ? to search inside your notes and meetings.
• Start with # to list the notes and meetings with a tag. Nested tags count: #client also finds client/acme.
  • A note’s tags are its tags property and any #tags in its text.
  • A meeting’s tags are only those in its meeting note’s tags property.

Clicking a #tag in a note open in Files fills in the filter for you.

Making notes and folders

The buttons under the filter box are New note, New folder, Refresh and Collapse all folders, and, at the right, Show what AI may do here, which marks each row with its folder access.

• New note asks for a name and makes the note in Notebooks/Unfiled, the folder for notes that belong nowhere yet, then opens it.
• New note here, in a folder’s menu, makes the note in that folder.
• New folder makes a folder at the top of the vault; New folder here makes one inside a folder.

Moving, renaming and deleting

• Rename a note or folder with Rename in its menu, or F2. The name becomes a field: Enter keeps the new name, Esc puts the old one back. A note’s name in its header renames it too.
• Move by dragging a note or folder onto another folder, or with Move to… in its menu. Dropping in the space under the last row moves it to the top of the vault.
• Links follow. When you rename or move a note or folder yourself, in Files or in a note’s header, links to it in your other notes are updated, as Obsidian does. A move the assistant makes doesn’t update links.
• Delete with Delete note or Delete folder. It goes to your computer’s Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows), where you can get it back. On a Mac, drag it out of the Trash: Finder’s Put Back doesn’t work for it. Where the system trash can’t be used, such as on some network drives, it goes to a trash folder inside the vault’s hidden .samurai/ folder instead.

Some things don’t move, rename or delete from the tree:

• The app’s own folders, such as Meetings, Notebooks, Skills, People and Dictionary, and any folder that holds one. Move them in Settings → Vault → Folders, or People under Settings → Vault → People notes; see moving the app’s folders.
• A meeting’s files stay in its folder. A meeting’s whole folder can be filed in any folder inside Meetings, by dragging or Move to…, but not outside it. It keeps its name, which follows the meeting’s title. It can’t move while the meeting is recording, processing or importing.
• Meetings are deleted from the meeting itself, not the tree. A meeting’s own note has no Delete; one of its documents has Delete document.
• PDFs, Word files, decks, text files and pictures don’t move, rename or delete on their own. Move the folder they’re in, and they stay with the notes that use them.

What each row’s menu has

Right-click a row, or use its More button. Every menu starts with Reveal in Finder (Reveal in Explorer on Windows) and Copy path. Then:

• A note: Export, Rename, Move to…, Delete note.
• A meeting’s note: Export.
• A transcript: Export, Export analytics csv, Open in the meeting.
• A meeting’s document:
  • Export;
  • Attach to prompt (or Remove from prompt), which decides whether the meeting’s next run reads it;
  • How this was made, when the assistant or a skill wrote it, which opens the chat that did;
  • Open in the meeting;
  • Delete document.
• A PDF, Word file, deck or text file: Open in its app.
• A picture: Open in its app, View reading, Read now (Read again once read) and Read with…. Reading a picture turns what is in it into text the assistant can search and quote.
• A folder of yours: New note here, New folder here, Rename, Move to…, What AI may do here (see Folder access) and Delete folder. A notebook’s folder adds Ask about this notebook.
• One of the app’s folders, such as Meetings or Skills: New note here, New folder here and What AI may do here.
• A meeting’s folder: Open the meeting, Move to… and What AI may do here.

Export saves the file as PDF, Word (.docx), Markdown or Plain Text, or copies it. A transcript’s Export also offers CSV, JSON, SRT Subtitles and WebVTT.

The note editor

Notes format as you type: headings, bold, links, tables, tasks and pictures show as they will read, and a line’s Markdown marks appear while your cursor is on it.

• Live Preview and Source. The toggle in the note’s header switches between the formatted view and the raw Markdown.
• Properties. A note’s properties show as a panel at the top, one field per property: text, a checkbox, a date, or a list. Editing a field changes only that property, and leaves your comments and their order alone. The panel’s </> shows them as written.
• The / menu. Type / at the start of a line or after a space to insert:
  • Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3;
  • Bulleted list, Numbered list, Task;
  • Table (also Cmd+Option+T on a Mac, Ctrl+Alt+T on Windows);
  • Quote, Callout, Divider, Code block;
  • Link to a note, Image or file, Properties.
• The selection bar. Select some text for a bar with Bold (Cmd+B or Ctrl+B), Italic (Cmd+I or Ctrl+I), Strikethrough (Cmd+Shift+X or Ctrl+Shift+X), Highlight, Code, Link (Cmd+K or Ctrl+K) and [[ ]], a link to a note or meeting.
• Links. Type [[ and pick a meeting or note from the suggestions. Or drag a file, or a meeting’s folder, from the tree into the note to link it.
• Pictures and files. Paste or drop one into a note, or use / → Image or file. The file is saved beside the note, and the note gets an embed. Embeds written in Obsidian, ![[shot.png]] or ![](shot.png), show too. Audio and video embeds get a player.
• Find with Cmd+F on a Mac or Ctrl+F on Windows.
• Saving happens as you type. The header shows Edited, then Saving….
• Dictation types into the note when it has the cursor.
• Size. A note over 4 MB doesn’t open in the editor.

If notes or documents show blank, turn off Settings → Appearance → Formatted editor. Notes then open in a simpler editor that still styles Markdown as you type and saves exactly what you write, without rendered tables, the Properties panel, pictures or the / menu.

When a note changes somewhere else

A note can change while it’s open: you edit it in Obsidian, a sync tool brings a new version, or you keep a change the assistant suggested. The open note shows the change within a couple of seconds.

• No unsaved edit: the new version simply shows.
• An unsaved edit: the app stops and says the note changed on disk since you opened it. Choose Reload to take the new version, or Keep mine to save yours over it.
• Moved or deleted elsewhere: with nothing unsaved, the tab follows a moved note, and closes for a deleted one. With an unsaved edit, choose Put it back to save your text where it was, or Discard.

Nothing in Files saves over a newer version without asking.

Notebooks

A notebook groups the meetings and notes about one client, project or series. It is a folder in Notebooks/ holding a note of the same name, whose sources property lists its meetings. The folder can hold notes of your own too.

• Make one, or add a meeting to one: on a meeting’s menu choose Add to notebook…. Tick the notebooks it belongs in, or type a name under New notebook and press Create and add.
• Ask about one: in Files, a notebook’s menu has Ask about this notebook, which starts a chat about its notes and meetings.
• Edit the list by hand: add or remove links in sources, in the app or in Obsidian. See Using Samurai Scribe with Obsidian.

Notebooks/Unfiled isn’t a notebook: it holds notes that belong nowhere yet.

Files and the assistant

The note open in Files is the one the assistant’s context chip names: ask a question and it reads that note first. The assistant explains asking. To see or change what AI may do in each folder, click Show what AI may do here under the filter box; Folder access explains the marks.