Workspace and Sidebar

The sidebar lives on the left. It is where your open folders live, where you browse and manage files of every kind, and where you search across everything you have open, Markdown and code or text alike. You can collapse it to a thin rail for more writing space, or hide it entirely when you do not need it.

A workspace root is a folder you have opened. You can open more than one; each root appears as its own collapsible group in the sidebar with its file tree underneath. This is useful when you want a single Slate window that spans, for example, your personal notes folder and a project repo full of source files.

• Open Folder. Use the Open Folder button (in the sidebar or under the File menu) to add a root. The folder picker is platform-native.
• Collapse and expand. Click a root's header to fold it shut while leaving the tab open. Click again to re-expand.
• Remove a root. Use the small remove control on the root's header. Slate confirms before removing. Files in the root stay on disk; only the workspace stops watching the folder.

You can also manage roots from the command palette:

• /add-root opens the folder picker and adds the result as a root.
• /open-folder does the same. /open with a folder path also adds it as a root.
• /remove-root lets you pick a current root to remove.

The file tree expands one level at a time so very large folders do not slow you down. Click a folder once to expand it; click again to collapse. Files show a small icon based on type: a book for Markdown documents, a generic page icon for other text and code, an image preview icon for images, and a dimmed icon for binaries Slate cannot open.

Click a file to open it in a tab. You can also drag a file from the tree and drop it into the editor area to open it.

The sidebar doubles as a small file manager so you do not have to switch to your operating system's file picker just to add a file. All the common actions are on the right-click menu.

• New file. Right-click a folder and choose New File. Type the name (with extension) and press Enter. Press Escape to cancel without creating anything.
• New folder. Same, but choose New Folder.
• Rename. Right-click an item and choose Rename, or press F2. The name becomes editable in place. Press Enter to commit.
• Duplicate. Makes a copy with -copy appended to the base name, in the same folder.
• Move to Trash. Sends the item to your system trash so you can restore it from there if you change your mind. Holding Alt while choosing the trash action turns it into Delete Permanently for cases where you really do want it gone.

The sidebar supports the multi-select gestures you already know from your file manager.

• Click an item, then Shift-click another to select the range between them.
• Hold Cmd (or Ctrl on Windows and Linux) and click items individually to build a non-contiguous selection.
• Cmd or Ctrl + C copies the selection. Cmd or Ctrl + X cuts it. Cmd or Ctrl + V pastes into the folder under the cursor.
• Drag any selected item to move the whole group. Holding Option (or Alt) while dropping makes a copy instead.
• Cmd or Ctrl + Z undoes the last file-tree operation (rename, move, delete, paste).

The sidebar has a search bar at the top. Type a query to find files by name, across your Markdown notes and your code or text files alike. Toggle the In Content checkbox to also search file contents and pull up matching lines with a small snippet.

Click a file in the results to open it. Click a content match to jump to the matching line.

What gets searched

• Up to 500 matches total. If you hit the cap, refine your query.
• Up to 50 matches per file, so a single big file does not dominate the result list.
• Files larger than 1 MB are skipped for content searching, but still match by name.
• Recursion stops at depth 32, deep enough for any normal project and shallow enough that a stray symlink loop does not hang the search.

Slate does not search inside folders that are almost always noise. This keeps results fast and relevant.

• .git, .svn, and other VCS folders.
• node_modules.
• target (Rust), dist, build.
• Any folder whose name starts with a dot.

These folders are also hidden from the file tree by default. If you genuinely want to look inside one of them, you can navigate there directly from another tool.

Drag the sidebar's right edge to resize it. Click the toggle in the sidebar header (or the Slate logo) to collapse it to a thin rail with icon-only actions: expand, new document, open file, open folder, and search. Click the toggle again to expand.

Both the width and the collapsed state persist across launches, so the window opens the way you left it.

See also the outline panel for a complementary right-side navigation surface.