Vault and files
A vault is an ordinary folder of .md files on your disk. There is no
database, no import, and no proprietary container. Point mdai at a folder you
already have and it reads what is there.
Opening one
Section titled “Opening one”| Action | macOS | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Open File… | ⌘O | Ctrl+O |
| Open Vault… | ⇧⌘O | Ctrl+Shift+O |
Open File opens a single document. Open Vault opens a folder, which is what fills the Files panel, the task index, the tag index and backlinks — the features that need to know about more than one note.
File → Close Vault puts mdai back to single-document mode without touching anything on disk.
The Files panel
Section titled “The Files panel”⌘1 / Ctrl+1 shows the file tree: your folders, your names, your order. It is a view of the folder, not a copy of it.
It watches the folder
Section titled “It watches the folder”mdai follows the folder while you work. A file changed by another program — a sync client, a script, another editor — is picked up on its own, and the panels refresh with it. You do not have to tell mdai that something happened outside its window.
If a file was changed both on disk and in your open tab, mdai asks before overwriting anything.
Rescan Vault
Section titled “Rescan Vault”View → Rescan Vault rebuilds the index from scratch. You should not need it in normal use; it is there for the cases where the folder changed in a way the operating system does not report — a whole directory restored from a backup, a network share that reconnected, a sync client that wrote a thousand files at once.
It has no shortcut on purpose: it is a repair, not a daily action.
Leaving
Section titled “Leaving”Nothing here locks you in. Every note is a text file, every folder is a folder, and any other editor opens them unchanged. If you delete mdai tomorrow, your vault is exactly what it was — a folder you can read.