Notes that are files
Double-click the board to write. Markdown renders in place; ⌘B and ⌘I wrap bold and italic.
.txt.md
File manager
with unusual possibilities
Cross-platform desktop and web application with responsive UI, where folders with files can serve as whiteboards or other types of views, and be stored locally or in the cloud for real-time collaboration and publishing
Seven views
One folder. Seven ways to look at it.
Every folder remembers its own view. Switch whenever the work changes — the files stay put, only the way of looking moves. Two classic file-manager views, List and Grid; two spatial ones, Board and Canvas; and three based on sorting, Stack, Masonry and Slides.
Board — Place anything anywhere. Resize, leave space, snap to a grid if you like.
Research Board
Files stay files
Your board is a folder. Your folder is a board.
In the desktop app you open a real folder on your disk. There is no library to import into and no database to get locked into.
Ordinary files
A note is a .txt or .md. A shape is an .svg. Any other app can still open them.
Layout rides along
Position, size, view and background are kept in the files' extended attributes. Nothing to import or export.
Ink in .pile/
Drawings and connectors sit in a small .pile folder next to your files.
Watches the disk
Rename or add something in Finder or Explorer — it shows up on the board.
A classic file manager vs Pile Commander
The same folder, side by side: a classic file manager on the left, Pile Commander on the right.
Opening folders from your disk needs the desktop app. In the browser you get a demo and browser desktops.
What lives on it
Notes, media, models, shapes — and other folders.
Drop things in and they show up as themselves, not as a row of filenames.
3D models
Orbit around a model right on the board. The angle you leave it at is the angle it keeps.
.glb.gltf
Images
The picture, not its filename.
.png.jpg.gif.webp.avif.bmp
Video
Plays in place with the native player.
.mp4.webm.mov.mkv.ogv
Audio
Voice memos and tracks next to the notes about them.
.mp3.wav.ogg.flac.m4a.aac
Shapes and arrows
Saved as real .svg files. Press L or A and drag to draw a line or arrow.
.svg
Folders inside folders — live
Turn on Preview and a sub-folder shows its contents, in its own view, right inside the parent.
Combine into a pile
Select a few things and Combine selected — they become one folder. Uncombine puts them back.
Everything else
Any other file sits on the board as a tile and opens in its usual app.
Canvas
When a pile needs a map.
Switch any folder to Canvas and it becomes an infinite surface. Draw between things, connect them, and keep both hands on the keyboard.
- Connectors with arrows, a label in the middle, and an Animated style
- A pen in eight colours — or any colour, at any width
- Zoom from 20% to 400%. Fit to view. Pinch on a touch screen
- HHand
- SSelect
- LLasso
- CConnect
- DDisconnect
- PPen
- EEraser
Desks and windows
Experimental featureDesks, windows, a taskbar — in one app.
Keep several desktops side by side — on your disk in the desktop app, in the browser on the web, and in the cloud to follow you between devices. Each desktop is itself a board, with its own background and its own windows.
Start opens every workspace you have — Local, Cloud, Bookmarks, and Last opened — plus the ones shared with you and the ones you found on the Hub.
On a phone a workspace opens full screen and the folder tree slides in as a drawer.
- ⌘N New window
- ⌘B Toggle sidebar
- ⌘← Back
- ⌘D Duplicate
- ⌘C⌘V Copy between windows
- Double-click New note
- ⇧Double-click New folder
- ⇧Arrows Nudge by a grid step
⌘ on macOS. Alt for new window, sidebar and back elsewhere; Ctrl for copy, paste and duplicate.
Share and publish
Invite a person. Publish a link. List it on the Hub.
A cloud workspace can be shared three ways, and you choose each one separately.
1 Share workspace
2 Publish
3 Found on the Hub
Members see it in realtime
Editors and viewers you invite get every edit as it happens.
Visitors see what is there
A public link shows the workspace as it is when someone opens it — not a copy you have to re-export.
Forks, if you allow them
A signed-in visitor can copy your workspace into their own account, or download it as a .pile.
Where it lives
On your disk, in your browser, or in the cloud.
Pick per desktop. You only need an account for the cloud.
Local
Desktop app
Free, no account
- Real folders on your disk
- Export and import .pile archives
- Copy to cloud when you want to share
Browser
Any browser
Free, no account
- Desktops saved in this browser
- A demo workspace to try everything
- Nothing to install
Cloud
Desktop app or browser
Free plan: 100 MB
- The same desktops on every device
- Invites, live editing, publishing, the Hub
- Trash that keeps things for 30 days
Files up to 25 MB, up to 3 workspaces on the Hub. See pricing
Media in the cloud stays private
Uploaded files sit in a private bucket, encrypted at rest with AES-256. The app opens them through short-lived signed links, and anonymous visitors to a public workspace see thumbnails and poster frames rather than your originals. Files that stay on your computer never go there. How Backblaze encrypts files at rest
Any device
Use it on any device.
The same app on a desktop, a tablet and a phone. The interface reshapes itself for the screen — and for fingers instead of a mouse.
Adaptive layout
The sidebar folds away on a tablet; on a phone the board becomes one easy column.
Made for touch
Tap, drag and pinch to zoom work the way they do with a mouse and trackpad.
Install from the browser
Add it to the home screen and it opens like an app — no store needed.
Synced — or not
Cloud desktops follow you to every device; local and browser desktops stay on the one you use.
Start with a folder.
Everything on your computer is free and needs no account. The desktop app updates itself and opens .pile archives.
macOS
Apple silicon and Intel
Windows
Desktop app
Linux
Desktop app
Web
Any modern browser
- 1
Open a folder or the demo
Any folder in the desktop app, or the demo workspace in the browser.
- 2
Arrange it
Pick a view, drop things in, write where the idea belongs.
- 3
Invite or publish
Sign in when you want people in it, or a link to it.
Try it
Features & use cases, ready to open.
Download a demo as a .pile and open it in the desktop app, or look at the same workspace online.
Features
A tour of every view, file type and canvas tool, one folder each.
Use cases
Moodboards, project boards and research piles, set up the way people actually use them.
Under the hood
Plain folders all the way down.
A workspace is a folder on disk. The board is written into the files' extended attributes — there is no database to migrate and nothing to lock you in.
Research/workspace root
- view
- "board"
- background
- "dots"
References/
- view
- "grid"
harbor-01.jpg
- position
- {"x":120,"y":48}
- size
- {"w":240,"h":180}
Mood.md
- position
- {"x":40,"y":300}
- order
- 2
.pile/strokes.json · connections.json
Layout in xattrs
Position, size, view and background are stored on the files themselves: as xattrs on macOS and Linux, and as alternate data streams on Windows (NTFS only). In the browser and the cloud they travel as records next to each file.
Local
The desktop app works right in your ordinary file system — the same folders you see in Finder or Explorer; Tauri only provides the bridge to them through its plugins. The browser version keeps its desktops in IndexedDB.
Cloud
Supabase for accounts, data and live editing. Media files are stored in Backblaze B2.
.pile archives
Just a zip of the folder with its attributes, so the layout survives email, USB sticks and file systems that drop xattrs.
View source on GitHub a-matyukh/pile-commander