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A project folder that follows you

A thesis chapter, a research project, a zine: twelve PDFs, a pile of notes, screenshots from your phone, and ideas that arrive on the bus. None of this needs a terminal or git. It needs one real folder that's the same folder no matter which device you're holding.

You need: the quickstart done with the project folder as a workspace, remote access if you want it beyond the house (Tailscale), and the PWA installed on your phone.

The walkthrough​

  1. Give the project a shape. In the file browser, make sources/, notes/, and drafts/. Drop the PDFs into sources/; drag-and-drop upload works, and PDFs, images, and Office files preview right in the editor.

  2. Keep one live note. Create notes/next.md with what you're doing and what's next. It opens in a tab beside the PDF you're reading, and it's the first thing you see when you come back tomorrow, on any device.

  3. Capture from your phone. Found a relevant article while out? Use the OS share sheet → Computer, and choose whether it lands as a note, a chat draft, or a file import into the folder you configured in Settings → PWA. A thought instead of a link? Record a voice memo; it's saved into the workspace, with a transcript if speech-to-text is configured.

  4. Let AI read the pile, if you want. With a model connected, ask in the workspace chat:

    Read sources/kim2024.pdf and sources/tanaka2023.pdf. Where do their conclusions disagree? Don't edit any files.

    Mention files precisely with @. The answer sits in the chat history next to the sources it came from, and chats are just files in the workspace's .cptr/ folder, so they travel with the project.

  5. Find it all later. Cmd+K searches file names, contents, and chat history in the workspace. "That thing the second paper said about sample size" is findable even when you can't remember which paper.

What makes this work​

Everything is plain files in one folder on your machine: the sources, the notes, the memos, even the AI conversations. No app silo, no sync service, no export lock-in. Back up the folder and you've backed up the project. If sensitive documents shouldn't leave the machine, don't connect a hosted model; the folder, previews, notes, and search all work with no AI at all.

Go deeper: Notes and sharing · Files and editor · Search and chats

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