File Explorer
What would a fully integrated system be without a file explorer?
Navigation
Section titled “Navigation”You can access your file explorer with any of the Omnibar commands available (/ls, /f, or /files), giving you direct access to your local filesystem. Inside Kaba. Yes, we know, mindblown.
You can also access remote filesystems from other devices in your Kaba network, just select from the Device menu in the top left of the page.
| Open it with | |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F | Window → File Browser |
/files in the omnibar | Aliases /f, /ls. /files <path> opens at a path. |
| Kaba menu → File Manager | |
kaba://files/ | As an address |
[todo: add screenshot of the file explorer and of parts the sidebar (Device, Places, Volumes, Kaba Sync, Trash), the path bar, the file grid, the settings menu.]
The sidebar
Section titled “The sidebar”| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Device | Which device’s filesystem you are browsing. Switch to any online peer. |
| Places | Home and your favourite folders. Drag a folder here to add it; drag to reorder. |
| Volumes | Mounted drives and filesystems. |
| Kaba Sync | A folder synced across your cluster. |
| Trash | Deleted items. |
Browsing
Section titled “Browsing”The path bar shows where you are; click any segment to jump up. Type while a folder is focused to filter it by name. Use the arrow keys to move the selection.
The settings menu at the top right controls:
- View mode: grid or list, with an option to show the content of files inline.
- Show hidden files: dotfiles such as
.configand.ssh, and OS-hidden files. - Sort: by name, newest or oldest.
Selecting a folder shows its total size, the path, when it was modified, and its most recent and largest files.
Preview
Section titled “Preview”Open a file to preview it without leaving Kaba. Left and Right move to the previous and next file, Esc or Space closes the preview.
| Type | Preview |
|---|---|
| Images, video, audio | Shown or played in place. |
| Text and code | With syntax highlighting. |
| Rendered in place. | |
Word, Excel, PowerPoint (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx), CSV | Rendered by the built-in office viewer. |
Right-click → Open in Editor opens a file in Kaba’s source editor. Open With System hands it to your operating system’s default app.
[todo: add screenshot of a file preview and of parts the preview, previous/next controls, file metadata, Download/Edit/Delete.]
Managing files
Section titled “Managing files”Right-click a file, a selection, or empty space:
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open, Open With System, Open in Editor | |
| Cut, Copy, Paste | Ctrl/Cmd+X, C, V |
| Select all | Ctrl/Cmd+A |
| Rename | |
| Delete (to Trash) | |
| New File, New Folder | |
| Copy Path, Copy All Paths, Copy Folder Path | |
| Extract Here | For archives |
You can drag files between folders, into the sidebar, and out to other applications. When a paste or move would overwrite something, Kaba asks what to do. Long operations show progress.
Selecting files and choosing compress creates an archive; Extract Here unpacks one.
Deleting moves items to the Trash. From there:
- Restore puts an item back where it came from.
- Delete permanently removes one item.
- Empty Trash removes everything.
- Secure Empty overwrites contents before deleting. This is best-effort: on SSDs and copy-on-write filesystems, overwriting does not guarantee the old data is gone.
Files on another device
Section titled “Files on another device”Choose a peer under Device and the explorer shows that machine’s filesystem. Everything on this page works the same way: browse, preview, copy, rename, delete. File contents stream over the mesh as needed, so previewing a large video on a peer does not copy it first.
The peer must be online. See cluster & mesh.
[todo: add screenshot of the Device switcher and of parts This device, an online peer, the browsed peer’s files.]
Kaba Sync
Section titled “Kaba Sync”Kaba Sync is a folder that is kept in step across the devices in your cluster. Put a file in it on one device and it appears on the others.
[todo: confirm Kaba Sync behaviour for conflicts and offline devices, and document it here.]
File activity as memory
Section titled “File activity as memory”When Remember file activity is on (Settings → Features), what you do in the explorer is saved as a searchable memory: what was created, renamed, moved, copied, trashed, restored, deleted, compressed or extracted, and whether it worked. When another of your devices changes files on this one, that is remembered too, with which device did it.
Downloads
Section titled “Downloads”Files you download in the browser go to your Downloads folder, or wherever you set under Settings → Downloads. From the downloads panel, Show in Files opens the file’s folder here; Show in System opens it in your operating system’s file manager.