Where your data lives

Every folder Discovery Engine reads from or writes to on Mac and Windows, what each holds, and which ones must never be given to an AI agent.

#The four kinds of folder

Folder	Who chooses it	Holds real names?	Give it to your agent?
Case files (your originals)	You, per case	Yes	No. The agent uses the `discovery` command.
App data folder	Fixed	Yes	Never.
Agent work folder	You, on Start Up	Whatever the agent writes	Yes: open it as the agent's project.
Export folder	You, on Start Up and Exports	Real-name exports do	Only for exports you've asked for.

#Your case files

The originals stay wherever you keep them: the case's folder, plus any folders and files added to it. The app only reads them. It never writes, moves, renames or deletes anything there, and it refuses to write exports inside them.

#The app data folder

	Location
Mac	`~/Library/Application Support/Discovery Engine`
Windows	`C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\appstart\Discovery Engine`

Inside:

Item	What it is
`cases/`	One folder per case, by ID.
`cases/<id>/case.db`	The case's database: the text of every document, the names found and their stand-ins, the search index, highlights, reviews, studies, settings and the agent log.
`cases/<id>/cache/`	Files taken out of ZIP archives and e-mail attachments.
`cases.json`	The list of cases and where each one's files are on this computer.
`models/`	The downloaded reading models (about 1 GB).
`logs/engine.log`	The engine's log, useful when the app won't start properly.
`logs/activity.log`	The activity log: what the app is doing while it reads (see Settings). Rolls over to `activity.log.1` when it grows large.
`logs/cli.log`	Details of command-line errors, kept here rather than shown to the agent.
`agent.json`	Your chosen agent work and export folders.
`connection.json`	How the command-line tool finds the running app. Rewritten each time the app starts.

Deleting this folder deletes every case (and the models), but never your original files.

#The agent work folder

Default: Documents/Discovery Engine/Agent work in your user folder. Change it on Start Up.

You open it as the project in ChatGPT desktop or Claude desktop.
Write guide files puts AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md here. A version you wrote yourself is never replaced.
The agent keeps its notes, drafts and answers here.

#The export folder

Default: Documents/Discovery Engine/Exports in your user folder. Change it on Start Up (for exports your agent makes) or pick a folder on the Exports screen (remembered per case). Every export goes into a new, dated folder inside it.

#The command-line tool

	Location
Mac	`~/.local/bin/discovery` (a small script). Add to PATH adds `export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"` to `~/.zprofile`.
Windows	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Discovery Engine\bin\discovery.cmd`. Installing adds its folder to your user Path.

It's a small file that runs the app's own bundled Python. Installing again replaces it.

#Case files you move between computers

A .decase file (from All cases → Export…) holds a case's database and cache. It isn't encrypted. Delete it from the USB drive once the case is imported. See Moving a case to another computer.