--- title: "Asset Management" description: "Organize, browse, and use files in your NodeTool workflows." canonical: https://docs.nodetool.ai/asset-management markdown: https://docs.nodetool.ai/asset-management.md product: NodeTool source: https://github.com/nodetool-ai/nodetool/blob/main/docs/asset-management.md --- # Asset Management NodeTool lets you store and organize files used in your workflows. Assets can be images, audio clips, videos, PDFs, 3D models, or any other resources referenced by nodes. --- ## Where this fits Assets are the shared material between NodeTool's surfaces. **Workflows** read assets and write new ones; **sketches** open an asset and render an edited one back; **timelines** import assets as clips and export a finished video asset. The Asset Explorer is the one store all of them read from and write to, so a file produced in any surface is immediately usable in the others. See [Key Concepts → How everything fits together](key-concepts.md#how-everything-fits-together) for the full loop. --- ## Asset Explorer The **Asset Explorer** is the central hub for managing your files. Open **Assets** from the app menu (it opens as a tab, at `/assets`), or use the Assets view in the left panel. ![Asset Explorer](assets/screenshots/asset-explorer.png) ### Views - **Grid view** -- Thumbnails with previews, best for visual assets like images and videos - **List view** -- Compact rows with metadata columns, best for large libraries Switch between views with the toggle in the toolbar. ### Toolbar - **Select all** and **Deselect** - **Sort assets** by Name, Date, or Size - **Filter by file size**: All, Empty, < 1 MB, 1-10 MB, 10-100 MB, > 100 MB - **Type filter**: All, Images, Videos, Audio, 3D Models, Text, Documents, Other - **Item Size** slider for the grid - **Create folder** and **Upload files** The page header shows the total size, folder count, and file count of the current folder. ### Navigation - **Folder tree** -- Browse your directory hierarchy in the left panel - **Search** -- Matches file names only, with a substring match. The input searches the current folder (**Search current folder...**). The toggle next to it switches to **Search all assets...**, which searches every folder and shows each result's folder path. Global search starts at two characters. ### Uploading Files - **Drag and drop** files directly into the Asset Explorer - Use the **Upload files** button in the toolbar - Drop files from your computer onto the workflow canvas. NodeTool uploads them and adds a matching constant node. The server rejects a single upload above `NODETOOL_MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES` (1 GiB by default). ### Working with Assets in Workflows Drag any asset from the Asset Explorer onto the workflow canvas. NodeTool adds a constant node for its type, such as `nodetool.constant.Image`, `Video`, `Audio`, `Document`, or `Model3D`. Dragging several selected assets adds one node each. An unsupported type shows an "Unsupported file type" error. --- ## Asset Viewers ![The asset viewer showing a still, with download, edit, compare and info controls and a strip of the folder's other files](assets/screenshots/asset-viewer.png) NodeTool includes specialized viewers for common file types: | File Type | Viewer Features | |-----------|----------------| | **Images** | Zoom up to 16x, pan | | **Audio** | Waveform with zoom and minimap. To trim or fade, see [Audio Editor](audio-editor.md) | | **Video** | Browser video controls | | **PDF** | Previous and next page, zoom in, zoom out, reset zoom | | **Text** | Markdown rendering, code, CSV, and plain text | | **3D Models** | Orbit and zoom, grid, axes, wireframe toggle, fullscreen | Open any asset in its viewer by double-clicking it in the Asset Explorer. --- ## Collections ![Collections Explorer](assets/screenshots/collections-explorer.png) Collections hold text chunks for semantic search in RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) workflows. They are separate from the asset library: a collection stores indexed text, not asset files. Open **Collections** from the app menu to create one and drop text files onto it. See [Collections](collections.md) for the upload route, its limits, and how workflows use collections. --- ## Metadata - Assets track `size`, `content_type`, and `duration` (audio and video), plus a free-form `metadata` object. - On the desktop app, an imported video whose longer side is at least `NODETOOL_VIDEO_PROXY_MIN_SIZE_PX` pixels (default 1920) gets a smaller preview proxy built in the background so timeline scrubbing seeks fast. Export reads the original. - Files at or above `NODETOOL_EXTERNAL_ASSET_THRESHOLD_BYTES` (default 1 GiB) stay at their original path and the asset references them in place. See [External assets](storage.md#external-assets). --- ## Document Indexing Text-based files can be indexed for vector search: 1. Extract text from binary formats first, for example with `lib.pdf.ExtractText` 2. Index the text into a **Collection** with an index node, or drop text files onto the collection tile 3. Use query nodes (`vector.QueryText`, `vector.HybridSearch`) to search the indexed text 4. Combine with language models for RAG See [Indexing](indexing.md) for detailed setup instructions. --- ## Storage Assets are stored locally under the NodeTool data directory by default: `$XDG_DATA_HOME/nodetool/assets`, falling back to `~/.local/share/nodetool/assets` on macOS and Linux, and `%APPDATA%\nodetool\assets` on Windows. Set `ASSET_FOLDER` or `STORAGE_PATH` to move it. For deployed instances, assets can be stored in: - **S3-compatible storage** -- AWS S3, MinIO, or compatible services - **Supabase Storage** -- Integrated with Supabase auth See [Storage](storage.md) for backend configuration. --- ## Next Steps - [Indexing](indexing.md) -- Set up document indexing for RAG workflows - [Storage](storage.md) -- Configure storage backends - [Workflow Editor](workflow-editor.md) -- Use assets in your workflows - [Example: Chat with Docs](workflows/chat-with-docs.md) -- Build a RAG workflow with your documents