File Explorer

Who it is for

People who work across BB threads and need to find a file an agent mentions, preview it, or add its path to a chat draft.

What you get

The tree sits on the right of the BB window as a pinned rail. A folder selector pins a project source or thread workspace, so switching threads keeps the same tree state, expanded directories, and selection.

Files in the tree use Seti-style type icons (markdown, JSON, gitignore, .env, README, TypeScript, and more). Folders keep only the twistie.

The rail carries two tabs — Files and Search text:

• Files tab: a search box above the tree. Type a file name, part of a path, or paste a path, and the list under it names the files that match. On a thread or New Thread page, Enter selects the file in the tree and opens its preview — one action, both results — and temporarily re-roots the tree when the file lives in another project.
• Search text tab: search the contents of files under the pinned root, with options for case sensitivity, whole-word, and regular expressions. Click a match to open it; click the replace button on a file to replace all matches in that file. A replace-all button replaces across all matching files. Replace writes each file against the hash it was read at, so a file that changed under the run is refused rather than clobbered.

In a thread or on the New Thread page, click a file to open BB's default preview. Right-click to add its absolute path to an open chat draft, create a file or folder (type a name when prompted), rename or delete a file or folder, copy a relative or absolute path, or reveal the item in the system file manager. When several drafts are open, choose the target in the menu. Right-click the root name to create a file at the top of the tree. A newly created file opens in the external editor.

Search and chat paths ask the same question of the same index. When a message names a path, the tree can jump to it. A bare file name works too: the search roots are indexed by name, so AGENTS-base.md lands on the file even when nothing in the message says which folder it is in. If the hit is in another folder, the tree re-roots there instead of reporting a miss.

Git-ignored files appear dimmed in the tree with a tooltip noting they are ignored by git.

How it works

The folder selector lists project sources and the current thread workspace. Set Root folder for personal threads to a path such as ~/Documents to add it to the selector. Hidden and ignored folders (.claude, node_modules, .git, and more) stay hidden unless you turn them on in settings. Search roots (default ~/Documents, one path per line) are the extra places a chat path may land; the name index walks these roots with a bounded BFS to answer bare-file-name lookups.

Content search runs ripgrep at the pinned root. Files on another paired host search there — they never cross the host bridge.

Open in Explorer is available for files on this computer. It reveals the file in the system file manager: open -R on macOS, explorer /select on Windows, xdg-open on Linux.

First step

Install File Explorer, open a thread, and leave the tree open on the right. Click a file you already know. Then right-click the same file: reveal it in Explorer.

Settings

• Show the pinned file explorer when BB opens — tree is visible on BB startup (default: on)
• Confirm before deleting files and folders — safety dialog before destructive operations (default: on)
• Show hidden files and folders — reveal .git, node_modules, .claude, and other build/ignored folders
• Root folder for personal threads — set a path to offer it as a pinned folder
• Files or folders to hide by default — extra folder names to hide in the tree and search (one per line)
• Folders to search for paths mentioned in chat — search roots for name-based resolution (default ~/Documents)