Files local extension help

Choose folders

In your assistant's extension settings, choose only the document or project folders you want Files to read. Select narrow folders rather than your entire home directory. A visible document can contain confidential information even when hidden files are excluded.

Ask your assistant to list the selected folders, search for a distinctive word or filename, then read a short excerpt with its source path and line numbers. Files does not edit, organize, upload or delete your original files.

Search and file limits

Search uses filenames and exact text in a local index. It does not use embeddings or understand every synonym. UTF-8 text can be indexed up to 1 MiB per file. PDF and Office text extraction are not included. Other regular files may be discoverable by filename.

Hidden paths, symbolic links, dependency and build folders are excluded. The index is limited to 20,000 files and 100 MiB of text. Ask for index status to see coverage, errors and limits; a partial index does not prove that a file is absent.

Refresh changed files

Files scans on startup and normally refreshes every 60 seconds. Ask your assistant to refresh the local index after changing a document. Search checks matched text against current files to avoid returning an outdated excerpt.

Clear cached text

Ask your assistant to clear the local index. This removes cached content and pauses background refresh until you explicitly refresh again. Disconnect the extension to stop caching across restarts.

For complete cache-file removal, stop the extension process and remove its dedicated Files/local-mcp cache directory from your operating system's local application-data folder. This leaves source documents intact. Clearing the local cache does not remove results already disclosed to your assistant.

When a folder cannot be indexed

The cache directory must be outside your selected folders. Narrow your selection if it includes your operating system's application-data directory. For a custom command-line installation, choose a separate private cache directory with the index-dir option.

On Unix, Files rejects an existing cache directory that other users can access. Use a dedicated private directory; Files does not change permissions on a shared directory.

Local and cloud Files

The local extension does not connect to filesforai.com, upload folders or synchronize changes. The cloud Files connector has its own account and project permissions. Installing one does not grant the other access.