ArchiveMind's own database: everything it has learned about your files
(names, paths, metadata, extracted text, thumbnails, duplicate
relationships). Searching happens in the catalogue, which is why it works
even when a drive is disconnected. The catalogue is not a backup — it
does not contain your files.
Repository
A source of files you asked ArchiveMind to catalogue — a folder, an
internal drive, or an external drive. Each repository is tracked
individually, including whether it is currently connected.
Scan / indexing
The process of reading a repository and updating the catalogue:
discovering files, classifying them, hashing them, extracting metadata
and text, and generating previews.
Hash (fingerprint)
A short value computed from a file's contents. Two files with the same
hash have identical contents — this is how duplicates are found.
Duplicate group
A set of catalogued files whose contents are byte-for-byte identical,
possibly under different names, in different folders, or on different
drives.
Extracted text
The readable text ArchiveMind pulls out of supported documents during
indexing, which makes full-text search possible. Very large documents
are indexed up to an extraction limit.
Thumbnail / preview
A small image (or waveform, spectrogram, or video frame) generated from
a file so you can recognise it at a glance. Stored as derived data in
ArchiveMind's cache.
Enrichment
Optional, ongoing background work that adds depth to the catalogue after
the basic scan — for example building the visual-search index or media
previews.
Visual search
Finding photos by describing what is in them ("beach sunset"). Powered
by an image-understanding model that, in packaged beta builds, ships
inside the app and runs locally.
Embedding
The numeric representation of an image that the visual-search model
produces. Stored in the visual index; treated as derived, personal data.
Online / Offline / Missing
A repository's connection states. Online: currently accessible.
Offline: seen before, not currently present. Missing: never seen at
its recorded location since the record was created.
Local server
The small web server ArchiveMind runs on your own computer
(http://127.0.0.1:8765/) to display its interface. "Local" means it
serves only your machine; it is not a cloud service.
App mode / app window
The way ArchiveMind's interface opens in its own window without an
address bar, using a browser (Chrome, Edge, or Brave) in application
mode.
Reveal in Finder / Show in Explorer
The action that jumps from a catalogued file to the real file on disk,
selected in macOS Finder or Windows File Explorer.
Rosetta 2
Apple's built-in translation layer that lets Apple-silicon Macs run
apps built for Intel Macs.
Support bundle / diagnostics export
The privacy-conscious ZIP of operational diagnostics used when
reporting problems. Excludes files, contents, extracted text,
thumbnails, and per-file hashes; redacts paths by default.