Add your first library

The app indexes asset files where they already are. You point it at a folder (or a zip) of assets, it records every file in its library, and from then on you search, preview, tag and export from the library. Adding a folder doesn’t move or change anything in it.

The first-run screen

Until you add something, the middle of the window shows a drop zone, Add your first asset folder, and the status bar says No folders being watched.

There are several ways to start. They all open the same Add to library dialog:

• Drag a folder or a .zip file from Finder, Explorer or your file manager and drop it anywhere on the window. If you drop several items, the first folder or zip among them is used. Anything else (a single image, say) isn’t added; the status bar says Drop a folder or .zip file to add it to the library.
• Click Choose folder… in the drop zone, then pick a folder.
• Click Import pack (.zip)… in the drop zone, then pick a zip.
• Click Add to library at the top right of the window, or press Cmd/Ctrl+O.
• Run Add to library… from the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K).

When you start from a button or the shortcut, a file picker (Choose a folder or .zip file) opens on top of the dialog. It starts in the folder that held the last thing you added.

The Add to library dialog

Source

The path you picked, with Change… to pick another. Under it, the dialog says what will happen:

• Folder · files stay where they are. The folder is indexed in place.
• Zip archive · extracted to the app’s data folder when added. The zip is unpacked into the extracted_packs folder inside the app’s data folder (see Where your data lives), and that copy is what gets indexed. Your original zip isn’t changed, and you can delete it afterwards. Adding a zip with the same name again unpacks it into the same folder.

If the path isn’t a folder or a .zip, the dialog says That isn’t a folder or .zip file. and you can’t add it. Other archive formats (.7z, .rar, …) can’t be added this way; unpack them first, or keep them inside a folder you add, where they’re indexed as archives.

What’s inside

A quick count of what a scan would index, before anything is added: the number of files, their total size (for a zip, the size of the zip), and a colored bar with the count of each type (Texture, Audio, Model 3D, …). Files the app always skips, such as Godot, Unity and Unreal project files and .git folders, aren’t counted (see Supported formats). The count stops at 20,000 files and shows 20,000+ for bigger folders, so the dialog stays quick; the scan itself has no limit.

This is an asset pack

Tick This is an asset pack when the folder or zip is one pack from one source, such as a pack you downloaded. Every asset in it is then linked to the pack, so you can filter by pack, see its license in the inspector, and export the right credits later (see Packs and licenses). Leave it unticked for a folder that mixes things from different places; you can mark it as a pack later.

The box is ticked for you when you add a zip, or when the dialog finds a license file at the top of the folder. The fields:

Field	What to enter
Pack name	Required. Starts as the folder name, or the zip’s name without .zip.
Author	Who made the pack. Optional.
Source URL	Where you got it, such as the store page. Optional. The inspector shows a Source ↗ link for it.
License	The license text, or just its name (for example “CC0 1.0 Universal”).

If the folder has a file named LICENSE, LICENCE, COPYING or CREDITS at the top (any case, with no extension or ending in .txt or .md), the dialog copies the first 2,000 characters of it into License and says Detected from and the file name. When there are several, LICENSE wins over COPYING, which wins over CREDITS. For a zip whose files are all in one folder, the license file in that folder counts. Check the text, and shorten it to the license name if you prefer.

Watch for new and deleted files

When Watch for new and deleted files is ticked, the app checks your library folders while it’s running and rescans a folder when files are added to it or deleted from it. This is one setting for the whole library, not just this folder: ticking or unticking it here changes Enable file watching in Settings → General, where you also set how often it checks (every 30 seconds to 15 minutes; 1 minute by default). See Library and scanning.

Adding

If you have auto-tag rules, the bottom of the dialog says how many will apply to the new files.

Click Add & scan (the button shows the file count, such as Add & scan 8 files). The dialog closes right away and the scan runs in the background, so you can keep working. Cancel closes the dialog without adding anything. If you add a folder that’s already in the library, it’s scanned again.

While it scans

The status bar at the bottom shows the scan: first its name (such as Import pack: Retro Sound Effects… for a pack, or Scan root: and the folder name otherwise), then Scanning · and the number of files so far, with a progress bar and a Cancel button. If another scan is already running, the status bar says Added and the folder name · scan queued, and the new scan starts when the current one ends.

For each file, the scan:

• records its name, path, type, size and date;
• reads what it can from the file itself: image dimensions, sound length, the triangle count of a 3D model, a font’s family name, the list of files inside a zip;
• notes the license files that apply to it: files whose names start with LICENSE, COPYING, CREDITS or README in the same folder or, if there are none, the nearest LICENSE, LICENCE, COPYING or CREDITS file in a folder above it;
• applies your enabled auto-tag rules.

When it’s done, the status bar says Scan complete · +N added, N updated, N missing, N ignored, and the first-run screen gives way to the grid. Ignored counts the files and folders the app always skips.

After the scan, the app works through the new files once more in the background to fingerprint their contents. That is how it finds identical files in different places (Health → Duplicates in the sidebar). It doesn’t show progress for this and doesn’t get in your way.

Thumbnails are made the first time an asset appears in the grid and kept in a cache, so the first scroll through a big folder fills in gradually.

If you click Cancel, the files scanned so far stay in the library and the fingerprint pass is skipped. Scan the folder again later to finish it.

History

Click History at the right of the status bar to open Job History, which lists your last 10 scans: when each ended, its name, and how many files were added, updated, unchanged, ignored and missing, marked (cancelled) if you stopped it. Clear history empties the list.

Add more folders later

Add as many folders and zips as you like, the same ways as the first one: drag them onto the window, click Add to library, or press Cmd/Ctrl+O. Two more places:

• The + next to Folders in the sidebar (Add folder…). The Folders section lists every library folder with its number of assets; click one to show only its assets.
• Settings → Folders + packs (Cmd/Ctrl+,), which lists every folder with its pack and asset count. It has its own Add to library… button, and each folder’s menu can rescan it, mark it as a pack or edit its pack info, or remove it from the library. Removing a folder never deletes files on disk. See Settings.

A zip inside a folder you add is indexed as a single archive asset, and you can look inside it from the inspector. When the zip contains a license file, the inspector shows Import as pack…, which opens this dialog for the zip.

Next

• Organize a new asset pack: tag your assets and group them into collections.
• Search and filters: find what you just added.
• Supported formats: which files get previews.