Files Browser

The browser adapts to the project's file mode. In Local mode, thumbnails and bytes are served by LoftDesktop from your folder, and a folder watcher live-reloads as files change on disk. In Server(Virtual) mode, files come from the Loft server, and on LoftDesktop you can work locally on any part of the project.

Work locally (the laptop button on a selected asset, or inside one) asks where you want to work: in a folder that already covers it, a new folder just for that asset, or any folder you pick, used in place. Only that asset comes down. Anything it references elsewhere stays on the server. A Cut, for example, brings its own turnover media, so it is complete on its own.

Each of these places is a mount: a part of the project (the whole project, a library, or an asset) living in a folder on this computer. The deepest mount covering where you are wins. Inside a mounted place the pill in the header shows the folder's name, files not on your computer appear dimmed, and small dots mark whether a file is on the Server or Local. Everything you write there goes to the folder: New → Folder, new items, uploads and drops show as Local rows until you Upload to Server. Local rows can be renamed, moved and deleted, and only your folder changes; renaming, moving or deleting a server file keeps your local copy in step. If several mounts serve the same place, the pill lets you choose, or choose Server to work against the server.

A library can also come from a folder you already have: Add Folder on a project's Libraries page (under MANAGE) adds a library named after the folder and mounts it there, in place. The project page's Work locally button sets a folder for the whole project. Mounts in the OVERVIEW menu lists every mount on this computer for the organization you are in, across its projects, where you can open, re-point or remove them. Mounts belong to one organization: switch organizations to see that organization's. Removing a mount never deletes files. Mounts are yours alone: teammates see the server, and mount their own copies where they like.

A three-way toggle in the toolbar switches the layout (List is the default):

The view you pick is remembered: it rides in the URL as ?view=board (so a refresh, a bookmark or a link you send someone opens in the same view) and is kept as your default for the next folder you browse. The tool tab works the same way — ?tab=in the URL, and the last tab you used is remembered per asset type, so opening the next shot lands you back on the tool you were working in.

Use the breadcrumbs to see and jump up the folder path. In List view, click a folder or asset to open it, and click a file to open its full-screen preview (in Gallery and Board, double-click a card to preview). Gallery and Board keep the breadcrumbs and add a navigation strip under them — one chip per folder and asset at the current path, so you can carry on browsing without switching back to List. Folder icons carry meaning — a plain folder is a directory, a green icon marks a published folder, and a blue one marks a per-user work folder.

Two pill dropdowns in the toolbar narrow what's shown:

• Status filter — shows a colored dot and a label ("All", a single status, or "N statuses"). Its menu has Show All, Reset (hide Dropped), and a checkbox per status. By default, Dropped files are hidden.
• Media-type filter — All Media, Images, Videos, or Audio.

The status shown on each file is color-coded — the ones you'll act on most:

Click a file to select it; Shift-click for a range and Ctrl/Cmd-click to add or remove individual files. Your selection drives the toolbar — the verbs that appear (Move, Rename, Open with…, and so on) reflect what you've picked. Selection clears automatically when you navigate into another folder or library.

A reference points at a file that lives in a different asset — the frame you found while looking around and want to keep on this shot. Add them with Action ▸ Add Reference…, then pick images from anywhere in the project.

Nothing is copied. The reference resolves back to the real file, so it shows that file's own preview, status and notes — and if the original is updated, published, or annotated, the reference shows that too. Referenced files carry a link mark and the name of the asset they come from; on the Board they sit in a dashed purple card.

This is what makes a reference outlast the conversation you found it in. Attaching an image to the assistant lasts one session; putting it on the shot means it is still there next time — and can be picked as a generation input from the shot itself.

Three ways to get files into a project:

• Upload — drag files anywhere onto the browser (you'll see "Drop files here to upload"), or use Action ▸ Create ▸ Upload Files. Progress shows in an uploads shelf.
• Import Assets — Action ▸ Create ▸ Import Assets, for pulling in existing assets.
• Register — for files that are already in a local folder but not yet tracked by Loft.

1. Select the untracked file(s) — they're marked "Untracked" in the Status column.
2. Click Register in the toolbar.
3. Loft attaches them to the project so they gain history, status, and can feed generation.

Keep a library tidy with these, from the toolbar and the Action menu:

• + New — Folder, then one entry per asset type (Shot, Character, Cut…). An empty library shows the same choices as cards.
• Rename… — select exactly one file, asset, or folder, then click the rename (pencil) toolbar button to open its rename dialog.
• Move to… — select files or assets and click the move toolbar button; a folder picker opens, and Move here drops them in (files can cross libraries).
• Drag to move — with a mouse or trackpad, drag a selection onto another folder to move it there. Drag-to-move is off on touch screens; use Move to… instead.

Pins are a project-wide working set: the handful of files you keep coming back to — references to generate from, takes to compare, plates to review. You don't need the Assistant to use them, though the Assistant sees the same list as its context.

• Pin — select files and click the pin toolbar button. Already-pinned files are skipped.
• Pinned list — the box toolbar button shows a count; click it to review the pins, jump to any of them, unpin one with ×, or Clear all.
• Use them — the generation input picker has a Pinned pill that lists exactly these files, so a pinned reference binds in one click.

Select one or more files and press the layers button to open the Compositor. The first selected file is the base; every other file is a source layer. Paint on a source to keep that part of it, and the result is the base with your painted parts comped on. The Layers panel reorders, hides, duplicates or promotes a layer to base, and the Move tool slides, scales or rotates a painted cut-out.

Video works the same way. The usual job is fix and patch: a shot regenerated from the original gets one thing right, so you paint that region on the new take and comp it back onto the original. Because the fix was generated from the base, the two clips share framing and timing, and one painted matte usually holds for the whole clip. A transport bar lets you scrub, play and step frames to check. Saving queues a render on the server, which appears in the base's files like a generation.

• Difference view — bright where the active source differs from the base. A regenerated take should only glow where the fix is; anything else that lights up is drift. Paint on this view to keep a change.
• Blend — feathers the matte edge into the base. Lift — a moved cut-out leaves black behind instead of the base.
• Brightness — darkens or lightens the active layer's cut-out so a take that came back lighter or darker than the plate still matches. Watch the Difference view fade as you get close. Click the icon to reset.
• Keys — B brush, E erase, M move, D duplicate, [ ] brush size, hold \ to flip to the base. Video uses the same transport as the file viewer: K play/pause, , and . step a frame, J/L speed, Home/End, I/O loop range, X clear it, R loop on/off.
• Lineage — every save records a composite action with the base and each contributing source as inputs, so a comp of a comp still traces back to the originals.

Delete Selected (Action menu, or the toolbar bin) opens a confirmation that lists what goes. Files and folders can be deleted several at a time — each row in the list is the whole of what it removes.

An asset is different: deleting one takes its entire folder, everything inside it, and every file record attached to it. So an asset is deleted on its own — select a second asset, or mix an asset with loose files, and Loft asks you to narrow the selection instead.

With a single asset selected, the dialog reads the asset before it arms and shows you the manifest: the folder's total files, folders and size, its top-level contents with a size each, and the counts of file records, references and lineage records that go with it. Amber warnings call out the two things that reach beyond this asset — a nested assetinside the folder, and references from other assets that will break. Only then does Delete become available.

The Action button (top-right) holds everything not on the toolbar, grouped by intent. Some items appear only in certain modes:

• Add — Upload Files, Import Assets, and (Local mode) My Work Folder. Creating folders and typed assets lives in the + New button beside it.
• Selection — Add Context (register + open metadata so the Assistant can use the files), Download Selected (zipped), Submit to Dailies, plus Publish Selected (Local mode) and Download to Sandbox (desktop sandboxes) — files, folders or whole assets; a dialog lists every file, the total size and the sandbox folder they will land in before you confirm. Files already in the sandbox with the same size and date are skipped, so re-downloading a folder only fetches what changed; Stop halts after the file in flight and Resume picks up the rest, and a retry re-fetches only the files that failed. Upload to Server is the reverse: sandbox-only files and folders (status Local) go up to the browsed folder after a dialog shows what will be sent. The server never replaces a file in place — a name that already exists is refused, and a local copy that differs from the server's shows the status Modified: rename it to upload it as a new file.
• Folder — Open Explorer, to reveal the folder on disk (desktop).
• Delete Selected — pinned at the bottom, in red.

Two toolbar buttons answer "how was this made / what depends on it":

• View generation flow — opens the selected file(s) in Flow, the node graph of its generation history (see the Flows topic).
• Dependency report — a read-only table of the inputs and steps a file was built from.

Board turns an asset's files into cards on a pan-and-zoom canvas. The first time anyone opens an asset's board it lays itself out by lineage, and that arrangement is saved for everyone; after that the board opens exactly as it was left. Drag to arrange, use + Group to box related cards, and Arrange to lay cards out by lineage, left to right, again. Single-click a card to cycle its review status; double-click to open the preview. While a generation is running its placeholder card appears just to the right of the files it is being generated from, joined to them by dashed lines, and the board pans to it if it landed off-screen. Drag the placeholder anywhere you like — the finished file lands where you left it. Board is purely organizational — it records where each card sits per asset andnever moves files on disk.

Board shows the whole asset by default — every tracked file underneath it, including files in subfolders. Use the Whole asset / This folder toggle to narrow it to just the folder you're browsing; your choice is remembered per asset. When cards come from more than one folder, each shows its subfolder under the filename, so two shots' beauty.jpg stay tellable apart.

Unlike List and Gallery, Board carries every file type, not just media — a brief, a script, an .edl or a notes file sits on the canvas next to the shots it describes. Non-media cards show a type glyph instead of a thumbnail, and double-click opens them in the same viewer. The media-type filter still narrows to images, videos or audio when you want it.

Any Files Browser URL accepts ?asset_item=<code>, and opens the File Detail viewer on that file as soon as the page loads. That makes a file something you can send to someone — paste the link into chat, a task, or a note, and whoever clicks it lands on the file itself rather than on a folder they then have to search.

The code is the link — the folder in the URL does not have to be right. If the file lives somewhere else (or has been moved since the link was written), the browser looks up where it actually is and takes you there. Links the app builds for you — the Assistant's file chips, a Flow node's "go to location" — already use this form, so copying the address bar after opening a file gives you a link worth sending.