How do I set up my first project?

A project in dossier is simply one folder on your disk plus a small catalog dossier keeps inside it (in <your folder>/_dossier/). Your documents stay plain files in plain folders — you can open them in Finder at any time.

Create the project

1. Open dossier and choose Create Project (or mount an existing folder — dossier never moves or imports anything).
2. Pick the folder where your documents live, or where you want them to live.
3. dossier creates an INBOX/ folder inside it. That’s the front door: anything you drop there is picked up automatically.

Tell it how you file

Write a CONVENTION.md in the project root describing how you file — in your own words. Folder structure, filename rules, tags. See How do I write my convention? for a worked example.

File something

1. Drop a PDF into INBOX/. dossier notices it, reads the content, and shows a proposal in the right panel: a target path, a confidence level, and a one-line reason.
2. Accept to file it, or drag the file onto the right folder yourself — dossier learns from every correction you make.

No AI configured yet? dossier still works as a fast manual filer. Connect a provider (Claude, OpenAI, or a fully local Ollama model) to get proposals.