Getting Started
Symlinks and Load Knowledge

Symlinks and Load Knowledge

Cabinet uses direct symlinks to bring external folders into your knowledge base without copying anything. The folder stays where it is on disk — Cabinet just creates a pointer to it.

How Load Knowledge works

  1. Right-click any item in the sidebar
  2. Choose Load Knowledge
  3. Pick a folder on your machine (or paste the path)
  4. Optionally set a display name
  5. Click Load

Cabinet creates a symlink inside the KB:

data/my-project -> /Users/me/Projects/my-project

The folder's contents appear directly as children in the sidebar tree. No wrapper directories, no extra nesting.

What gets written

Cabinet writes two hidden dotfiles into the target folder:

.cabinet-meta

Every linked folder gets this. Stores display metadata for the KB. Hidden from the sidebar.

title: My Project
tags:
  - knowledge
created: '2026-04-12T00:00:00.000Z'

Cabinet also reads legacy .cabinet.yaml files when they already exist, but new links use .cabinet-meta.

.repo.yaml (git repos only)

If the folder is a git repo, Cabinet auto-detects the branch and remote and writes a .repo.yaml so AI agents can read the source code in context.

name: my-project
local: /Users/me/Projects/my-project
remote: https://github.com/me/my-project.git
source: both
branch: main

If a .repo.yaml already exists in the folder, Cabinet skips writing it.

Both dotfiles are hidden from the sidebar by default.

Sidebar icons

IconColorMeaning
GitBranchOrangeLinked git repo (has .repo.yaml)
Link2BlueLinked non-repo directory

Unlinking

To remove a linked folder:

  1. Right-click the linked item in the sidebar
  2. Choose Unlink

This removes only the symlink from the KB. The original folder and all its files are untouched. The .cabinet-meta dotfile in the target is also cleaned up.

Changing the data directory

By default, Cabinet stores content in ./data (dev mode) or a platform-specific app-data path (Electron). Override with the CABINET_DATA_DIR environment variable:

CABINET_DATA_DIR=/path/to/my/kb npm run dev

You can also make data/ itself a symlink pointing elsewhere — the tree builder follows symlinks transparently.

Tips

  • Linked folders with an index.html (and no index.md) render as embedded websites
  • Add a .app marker for full-screen mode
  • If the target folder has its own index.md, Cabinet uses it as the landing page
  • Agents discover linked repos by reading .repo.yaml in the current or any parent directory

Back to Getting Started.