What the manifest is

One file on your computer. One row per top-level folder you name, and one per thing you make to share.

The rows below are made up to show the shape. Paths are shortened. The ids came from a real run of the tool on a test folder.

The picture

The manifest, as a table

One row is one folder or one shareable. A field is one column. Ids are shown by their first 8 characters; the tool accepts that too.

What each field holds

id

64 random hex characters, given once, never changed. It is not made from the name, the path or the contents, so it gives nothing away.

kind

folder, for a top-level folder you named, or shareable, for something made to send or something that came back.

path

Where it sits on your computer. In the manifest only, never in a redacted copy.

visibility

Who may see the row, as a list. ["private"] stands alone. Otherwise any of public and people's names, read as public + Sam Lee. Every folder starts private.

lastActive

The day it last changed, from its modified time. Checked at session end.

mappedAt

Folders: the day it was mapped.

madeAt

Shareables: the day it was made or received.

sent

Shareables: each send, with the day, who, and whether it was published.

from

A shareable that came back: who sent it.

relates_to

The id of the shareable this one answers.

project

The project a shareable belongs to, when it has one.

hash

A fingerprint of a shareable's contents, to tell an edit from a touch. Never shared.

notes

Transformation notes attached to a shareable: the day and the note's path.

missing

The day session end could not find the row. Nothing is deleted.

What the file looks like inside

JSON, a plain text format. This is manifest/manifest.json, rows 1, 4 and 5. The real file holds the full path; it is shortened here.

{
  "schema": "cls-manifest/v1",
  "createdAt": "2026-10-08",
  "rows": [
    { "id": "3b0e0bea147116e94f01dab371c678c233371b5b0dbefdc65d3123bbf722913a", "kind": "shareable",
      "path": "PACKET.md",
      "visibility": ["Houston Bloom"], "madeAt": "2026-10-08", "lastActive": "2026-10-08",
      "hash": "3d5d45cf8e17", "from": ["Houston Bloom"], "sent": [] },
    { "id": "f4a6701333975e386d67d9a0fe2706a71a2d6118e5cbf68edd3c0410ac478d97", "kind": "folder",
      "path": "Documents/projects-2026",
      "visibility": ["Robin Park"], "mappedAt": "2026-10-08", "lastActive": "2026-10-08" },
    { "id": "25097f4ce5d30f94c088f824e14bd1c9792b2e07256b26d9e7d19bfbaf797b9c", "kind": "shareable",
      "path": "Local Brain/03_outbox/frames/local-assembly.html",
      "visibility": ["Sam Lee", "public"], "madeAt": "2026-10-08", "lastActive": "2026-10-08",
      "hash": "b18105d0da7c", "project": "Relational Spaces",
      "sent": [{ "on": "2026-10-08", "to": ["Sam Lee"], "public": true }] }
  ],
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-09"
}

Beside it, manifest/manifest.log.jsonl: one line per change. These are the lines for row 4.

{"at":"2026-10-08T13:43:04.039Z","change":"mapped","id":"f4a6701333975e386d67d9a0fe2706a71a2d6118e5cbf68edd3c0410ac478d97"}
{"at":"2026-10-08T13:43:04.279Z","change":"visibility","id":"f4a6701333975e386d67d9a0fe2706a71a2d6118e5cbf68edd3c0410ac478d97","visibility":["Robin Park"]}
{"at":"2026-10-09T13:43:05.663Z","change":"missing","id":"f4a6701333975e386d67d9a0fe2706a71a2d6118e5cbf68edd3c0410ac478d97"}
{"at":"2026-10-09T13:43:06.763Z","change":"moved","id":"f4a6701333975e386d67d9a0fe2706a71a2d6118e5cbf68edd3c0410ac478d97"}

The commands that wrote them, and what each printed:

node map.mjs receive PACKET.md --from "Houston Bloom"
received from Houston Bloom: id 3b0e0bea
node map.mjs add Documents/contacts Documents/notes Documents/projects
mapped contacts: private, id 71fca610
mapped notes: private, id 0e5ee6fb
mapped projects: private, id f4a67013
node map.mjs set Documents/projects --visibility "Robin Park"
projects: Robin Park
node map.mjs update
checked 5 · changed 0 · missing 1
node map.mjs moved f4a67013 Documents/projects-2026
moved: projects is now projects-2026, id f4a67013 kept

The manifest must sit outside every mapped folder; the tool refuses otherwise. These lines show in your activity view, 00_contacts/activity.html, built by activity.mjs. Session start reading the manifest: not built yet

How it connects