How to put local folders on a canvas and ask them questions

What does putting a folder on a canvas do?

It gives a project’s real folder a visible place, next to the notes, decisions and other files that explain it. Klypix is a portable project workspace with a shared brain. In the Windows app, a canvas is where you see and arrange what a project holds.

A folder card shows the folder’s complete directory tree, so you can browse its subfolders and keep it beside the notes about it. When the folder is embedded in the canvas file, you can also move files around inside it. Asking questions is a separate, optional step: you add folders to a local index, and Ask your files answers from them on your PC.

How do you put a local folder on a canvas?

Drag the folder from File Explorer onto an open canvas in Klypix for Windows. It becomes one folder card, with its nested subfolders and files.

1. Open a canvas for the project. Create a new one or open an existing .klypix file.
2. Drag in the folder. Drop it anywhere on the canvas. The card shows the whole tree, however deeply its subfolders are nested.
3. Check the card. It shows whether the folder was embedded in the canvas file or linked, meaning its files stay on disk. If a file was skipped while embedding, the card lists it rather than dropping it silently.
4. Save the canvas. A .klypix file is a plain ZIP you can unzip and read, so the layout, notes and embedded files stay inspectable.

You can drop single files too. Drag a file onto the canvas and it becomes a card with a preview, such as a PDF’s first page, a Word document’s text or a spreadsheet grid.

Are the folder’s files stored inside the canvas file?

It depends on the folder’s size. By default, Klypix embeds small folders in the .klypix file, copying each file byte-for-byte, and keeps large folders where they are on disk as a linked folder card. You can change that default under Folders on drop in the canvas settings, or switch a card from its right-click menu.

An embedded folder card makes the canvas self-contained: it keeps working if the original folder is moved, renamed or deleted. It is a copy, so later edits to the original folder are not pulled in automatically.

A linked folder card keeps the folder’s full listing in the canvas, but the files stay on disk. You manage those files in File Explorer rather than in the canvas, then refresh the card. On another PC, the card still shows the listing, but it can open the files only if that folder is there too.

Embedding has size limits. An embedded folder card holds up to 1 GB of files, and no single embedded file can be over 200 MB. Files over either limit are skipped and listed on the card.

How do you organise folders beside notes and decisions?

Place folder cards next to note cards on the canvas and connect them with arrows that say how they relate. Notes are text cards, so write a decision or an open question in one and keep it beside the files it is about. The file operations below work inside embedded folder cards; a linked folder card is read-only in the canvas.

• Nest as deep as you need. Folder cards hold arbitrarily nested subfolders. You can create subfolders at any depth and move a whole subtree in one operation.
• Move files between folders. Drag files and subtrees between and inside folders, or right-click and choose Move to folder. You can also drag a file card onto a folder card, or onto one of its subfolder rows, to move it inside.
• Delete with a confirm step. You can delete files or whole folders, and the app asks you to confirm first.
• Say how things relate. Arrows can carry one of eight relationships (leads to, depends on, relates to, conflicts with, supports, questions, costs and blocks) plus a free-text label.

For example, a kitchen renovation canvas might hold a Quotes folder card, a Permits folder card and a note reading “Decision: quartz worktop, within budget.” A supports arrow runs from the Quotes folder to that note. A note reading “Waiting on permit” has a blocks arrow pointing at a note reading “Start demolition.”

A folder card holds files only. Notes, boxes and code cards stay on the canvas beside it and are not filed inside it.

How do you index a folder so you can ask it questions?

Add the folder in Settings → Files. Klypix indexes it in the background on your PC and keeps up as files change.

• It reads the folder where it is. Your files stay in place on disk.
• The first scan takes time. A large folder takes a while to index the first time, and turning on OCR makes that first scan slower.
• You stay in control. Each indexed folder can be paused, re-scanned or removed.
• The canvas and the index are separate. Putting a folder on a canvas does not add it to the index. Add the same folder in Settings → Files as well.

To get written answers rather than passages, install KLYPIX Local in Settings → AI. Klypix picks a 1.9 GB answer model on capable machines or a 945 MB one on lighter hardware. It uses your GPU when it can and falls back to the CPU when it can’t. The model and the GPU support are one-click downloads, so this first setup needs an internet connection. The same install adds other on-device components, so the whole download is larger than the model alone.

Folder indexing and Ask your files are available on the free plan.

How do you ask your files a question?

Open the command palette (Alt+K by default), type your question and choose Ask your files. A model on your PC writes the answer from your indexed documents and lists its sources.

Each answer cites the files it came from, and you can click straight through to the source. For PDFs, spreadsheets and PowerPoint files, a citation can also name the page, sheet or slide. In the kitchen renovation, you might ask “Which quote includes removing the old cabinets?” and get an answer that names the quote’s PDF and the page it drew on.

If no local model is installed, you still get the matching passages from your files instead of an error. Ask your files does not fall back to a cloud model.

Which file types can Ask your files read?

Ask your files reads PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, Markdown and code: around 40 file types.

It does not read email files (.msg, .eml), Pages, Numbers or Keynote files, .epub books, or older .doc Word files and .ppt presentations.

Can it read scanned PDFs and Arabic documents?

Yes, with two limits: OCR is off by default, and only the first 10 pages of a scanned PDF are read.

Turn on OCR in Settings → Files, then re-scan the folder. Klypix then reads scanned PDFs and the text in images using the reader built into Windows, on your PC. A 60-page scanned appliance manual in the renovation’s Manuals folder is searchable only through page 10, so do not rely on an answer about page 40.

Arabic works throughout: searching, reading scanned Arabic pages with OCR on, and answering in Arabic, all on your PC. Answers in Arabic are noticeably slower than English answers on the same hardware. Scanned Arabic pages read best when Windows has its Arabic text-recognition language installed. Without it, Klypix falls back to a slower reader that is weaker on Arabic and may need to download its language data first.

What stays on your PC?

With Ask your files, your documents are read, indexed and answered on your PC, and the question and the passages do not go to a server. That covers this feature, not everything Klypix does.

Once the model is downloaded, asking your files works offline: no connection or account is needed to search local files or get a local answer.

Other parts of Klypix work differently. Chat, screen understanding and document generation can send content to a cloud AI model. If you use a cloud AI feature with your files, what it reads from them is sent to that cloud model. A canvas, including any folders embedded in it, goes to the cloud only when you choose to share it. The file is encrypted on your PC before it is uploaded, but the canvas title and the live edits used for collaboration are not.

In current versions of the desktop app, product-usage sharing is optional. If you turn it on, Klypix sends a fixed list of product milestones, activity while the Klypix window is focused, platform and app version. It does not send project content, filenames, paths, prompts, chats or screenshots in product analytics. Signing in keeps some account and device records whatever you choose; the privacy policy lists them.

What are the limits?

• Windows only. The desktop app and its local file index run on Windows.
• Embedding has size caps. An embedded folder card holds up to 1 GB of files, with no single file over 200 MB, and by default large folders stay on disk as linked cards. We have not published a tested maximum size for a whole canvas.
• Cloud sharing has a size limit. Sharing a canvas through the cloud is capped per canvas, so a canvas with large embedded folders may be too big to share.
• An embedded folder is a copy. Later edits to the original folder are not pulled in automatically.
• A linked folder is not a copy. Its files stay on disk, and you manage them in File Explorer rather than in the canvas. On another PC, the card shows the listing but can open the files only if that folder is there too.
• Folder cards hold files, not notes. Notes and arrows sit on the canvas beside a folder card.
• The canvas and the index are separate. A folder on a canvas is not searchable with Ask your files until you add it in Settings → Files.
• Scanned documents need OCR, and it stops at page 10. OCR is off by default, and only the first 10 pages of a scanned PDF are read.
• Citations are passage-level. Sources show the passages an answer drew on. They do not prove that each sentence matches its source, and Word documents, plain text and code are cited by file, without a page.
• Ask your files reads text. It does not describe photos, audio or video, and it reads text inside images only when OCR is on.
• First setup needs internet. The installer does not include the models or GPU support; they download when you turn them on.
• Speed depends on your hardware. Local answers take longer on lighter machines, and Arabic answers are slower than English ones.

How do you try it on one project?

Pick one project with a folder you know well, so you can check the answers against it.

1. Download Klypix for Windows and create a canvas for the project.
2. Drag the project’s folder onto the canvas and add a note with one decision beside it.
3. Add the same folder in Settings → Files and let the first scan finish.
4. Ask one question you already know the answer to, then open the cited source to check it.

Folder cards, the local index and Ask your files are available on the free plan. For cloud plans, see pricing.