Docs / Add, remove and rescan folders
A folder you add to ModelBrain (your notes, a project, an Obsidian vault) is called a vault in the app. Add one, and ModelBrain reads it in the background and keeps it in sync; nothing leaves your computer.
Markdown and plain text, Office documents (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx), PDFs, HTML, and common source-code and config file types: .rs .py .js .jsx .ts .tsx .go .java .kt .c .h .cpp .cs .rb .php .swift .sql .json .yaml .toml .css .xml .csv and similar. Anything else (images, video, and scanned/image-only PDFs) is skipped: not an error, just not indexed.
node_modules, target, dist, build, .venv, __pycache__, .next, vendor, plus logs, tmp, temp, var, coverage and are never read, at any depth.
.env and .env.*, *.pem, *.key, *_rsa, *.p12, and any filename containing secret or credentials, excluded entirely, not even cataloged by name.
Cargo.lock, package-lock.json, yarn.lock and similar, plus images, fonts, archives and compiled binaries by extension.
This is a real, automatic filter, not a substitute for judgment: keep passwords, API keys and tokens out of any folder you add regardless.
Holds the folder in place. ModelBrain stops reading it, everything already indexed stays searchable, and one click on Resume Syncing picks up whatever changed in the meantime.
Takes the folder off ModelBrain's watch list after you confirm. Everything already indexed from it stays searchable; add the folder again whenever you like.
Irreversible. Stops tracking the folder and deletes everything ModelBrain ever remembered from it. Use this when you actually want the content gone, not just paused.
All three are in the same tray menu as "Add Vault…", inside each connected folder's own submenu. Every item in that menu is explained in The ModelBrain menu.
Everything above is also available from a terminal, useful for scripting or a headless setup. Every subcommand takes an optional --store-dir <dir>; it defaults to the same vault the tray uses.
Only one process can hold the vault open at a time. If your assistant already has ModelBrain running, sync/sync-all/forget will say so rather than run; register still works, and the folder syncs on the next normal pass.
It reads it in the background, starting right after you add it. A large folder can take a while on the first pass; after that, only changed files are re-read.
Stop Syncing takes a folder off ModelBrain's watch list; everything already indexed from it stays searchable and nothing is deleted. Pause Syncing is the temporary version, and Resume Syncing continues. Remove Vault and Forget Its Contents is irreversible: it stops tracking the folder and deletes everything ModelBrain ever ingested from it.
No. Common build, dependency, and cache directories, along with obviously secret-shaped files and lockfiles, are excluded automatically, before anything in them is read.