The File Explorer
The Explorer is a specialized tab in the Left Sidebar that provides a tactile interface for browsing the physical files created and managed by your agents.
Use it when you need to inspect generated files, logs, prompt assets, or the selected agent's workspace without leaving Wardian.
When to Use It
- Browse the workspace for the agent selected in Watchlists.
- Inspect files after an agent reports completion in Queue.
- Open a quick preview before deciding whether to edit files in an external tool.
- Open a file or folder in your configured local app or editor.
- Reveal a file in the system file manager when you need native OS actions.
Basic Workflow
- Select an agent in the right roster, or clear selection for global Wardian home browsing.
- Open the Explorer tab in the left sidebar.
- Expand folders to inspect files.
- Click a file to preview it, or change the click behavior in Settings.
- Use the Explorer title actions to reveal the current root in your system file manager or open the entire root in your configured external app.
- Use preview, open externally, reveal, copy path, or delete from the file context menu.
- Move to Source Control when the selected root is a Git workspace and you need to review changes.
Root Behavior
The Explorer is context-aware and automatically re-roots itself based on your selection:
1. Agent Selected
When you select an agent in the Roster (Right Sidebar), the Explorer roots itself in that agent's private workspace directory: <wardian-home>/agents/<session-id>/ Use this to inspect logs, temporary files, and the agent's internal state.
2. No Selection (Global Mode)
When no agent is selected, the Explorer roots itself in the main Wardian home directory: <wardian-home>/ This allows you to manually browse common data, shared lineages, and global configuration files.
🖱️ File Interactions
Clicking a folder expands or collapses it. Clicking a file uses the configured File click action from Settings:
- Preview in Wardian opens the read-only preview modal. This is the default.
- Open in external app opens editor-friendly files through the configured Explorer external editor preference. Binary, media, archive, executable, and document files use the operating system's default handler.
The Explorer also supports standard right-click actions for rapid file management:
- Open Preview: Opens a read-only plaintext viewer within Wardian for quick inspection of markdown, JSON, or log files.
- Open in External App: Opens the selected folder, or an editor-friendly file, using the configured Explorer editor preference. Binary, media, archive, executable, and document files use the operating system's default handler. You can switch editor-friendly paths to VS Code or a custom executable in Settings.
- Reveal in System Explorer: Opens your OS file manager (Windows Explorer or macOS Finder) directly to the selected file or folder.
- Copy Path: Copies the absolute path of the file to your clipboard.
- Delete: Permanently removes the file or directory from your disk (requires confirmation).
Agent terminals and the bottom user terminal also make recognized file paths and URLs clickable, including links that wrap across terminal rows. File paths use the same type-sensitive behavior as Open in External App; URLs open as URLs. Wardian validates terminal file links before showing them, so slash-looking command names or prose fragments are ignored unless they resolve to a real file or folder.
Git Status Markers
When the selected root is a Git repository, the Explorer uses status colors and markers to identify changed, staged, deleted, and untracked paths. Parent folders are highlighted when they contain changed files.
Important Limits
- Delete removes files from disk after confirmation; it is not a soft-hide operation.
- Explorer context follows selection. If the tree is not showing the workspace you expect, check the selected agent in the roster.
- Previews are for quick inspection. Use your editor or Source Control for deeper code review.