Guides
Connect Knowledge

Connect Knowledge

Connect Knowledge brings folders you already have, on your machine or in the cloud, into a Cabinet room. Nothing is copied or uploaded. Cabinet points at the folder where it lives, so its files show up in the sidebar and your AI agents can read them as context.

Open the picker

Right-click the data area or any folder in the sidebar and choose Connect Knowledge. A tile picker opens with your options:

  • Local folder brings in any folder on your computer.
  • Google Drive, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox bring in a cloud folder, read straight from that service's desktop sync app. No sign-in, no API keys.
  • Notion, Confluence are app connectors, so their tiles take you to the Integrations Hub.

Anything already installed on your Mac also appears under Detected on this Mac for one click.

Connections are per room. A folder you connect in one room does not show up in another.

Local folders

Choose Local folder, pick a folder (or paste a path), and Connect. The folder's contents appear directly in the tree, for example /Users/you/Development/my-repo/ shows up as ./my-repo/. Edits stay in the original location.

If the folder is a git repo, Cabinet auto-detects it and writes a .repo.yaml so agents get extra context about commits, branches, and history. See Apps & repos.

Cloud folders

Choose a cloud service. Cabinet finds its local sync folder, lets you browse to the sub-folder you want, and asks how to connect it:

  • View only (the default). Agents can read the files, but nothing in Cabinet can change them.
  • Read and write. Edits you make in Cabinet sync back to the cloud.

A cloud folder can land in two places:

  • Inline, right where you clicked in the tree, marked with the service's logo and, for view-only folders, a small "view" badge.
  • In a cloud browser section for the room, when you connect from the room's top level.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides always open in a read-only viewer, since they live in Google's editor rather than as plain files.

Read only keeps your files safe

When you connect a folder as view only, Cabinet protects it everywhere. The page opens in a read-only editor, and the menu hides rename, move, and delete. Your agents can read those files, but they cannot change them. This makes it safe to point Cabinet at a shared drive or a folder you do not want touched.

Tracking metadata about a connected folder

For a local folder, add a .cabinet-meta file next to (or inside) it:

# .cabinet-meta
title: My Code Repo
description: Backend monorepo for acme.com.
visibility: cabinet

Cabinet picks up the metadata on the next scan. The title shows in the sidebar; the description shows on hover.

Disconnecting

Right-click a connected folder and choose Unlink (or Disconnect for a cloud folder). Cabinet removes only its pointer. The original folder and every file in it are left exactly as they were.

CABINET_DATA_DIR

Cabinet looks for cabinets at $CABINET_DATA_DIR (default ~/cabinets/). Set the env var to point at a different location:

export CABINET_DATA_DIR=~/Documents/cabinets

This is useful if you keep cabinets on an encrypted volume or a synced folder.

Read on