On This Page
The Home Assistant: Organize Files by Asking
Since Sortio 9.0, Home is a chat. Ask it to sort a folder, give files clearer names, move leftover apps, find a file or undo a change. Nothing moves until you click Apply.
What it is
Since Sortio 9.0, the first thing you see when you open the app is a chat: "What should we organize?" Type what you want in your own words and Sortio works out the steps. It looks at the folder, proposes a plan, and waits for you to approve it.
You approve every change
Every change appears as a card first. Nothing on your disk changes until you click its button.
Nothing is deleted
The assistant can move and rename files. It has no way to delete anything.
Everything can be undone
Click Undo on the card, ask "undo that", or use Activity, even days later.
It looks before it answers
It checks what is actually in a folder before saying it is sorted, clean or empty.
What you can ask
- Sort a folder
- "Sort my Downloads by file type", "Give each client its own folder in Documents", "Organize my Desktop". The plan card has switches for Give files clearer names, Set aside duplicate files and Also sort files inside subfolders.
- Give files clearer names
- "Give these clearer names". Sortio asks whether to sort into folders with clearer names, written from what each file contains, or just add the date to each name without moving anything. "Rename my photos with the date they were taken" does the second.
- Tidy what a sort leaves behind
- A sort moves loose files. Folders, apps and installers at the top of the folder stay where they are, and the plan says so. Ask "move the installers into a folder" and Sortio plans moves for whole folders and apps.
- See what is in a folder
- "What's on my Desktop?", "List what's left in Downloads".
- Find a file
- "Where did my W-2 go?" Sortio checks its record of what it moved, then searches. The file card has Open, Show in Finder (or File Explorer) and Move it back.
- Undo
- "Undo that", "Put my Downloads back". Sortio lists the recent changes to choose from, or Undo both / Undo all.
- Questions about Sortio
- "How do I cancel?", "What does Analyze file contents do?"
Which folder? Downloads, Desktop and Documents mean the ones in your home folder. A path like ~/Documents/Scans works too. If it is unclear which folder you mean, Sortio opens the folder picker at its best guess so you can confirm it. You can also click Choose a folder under the message box at any time.
Plans, Apply, and undo
A plan card shows the folders Sortio will create, how many files move, and anything left out. Review all changes lists every file and where it goes. If you want something different, just say so ("keep the photos where they are", "use fewer folders"), and a new plan replaces the old one. When it looks right, click Apply plan (or Rename N files).
Safety checks
These checks are built into the app, so they don't depend on the AI getting it right. Sortio never moves anything into or out of an app, a package or a library (such as a Photos library), and it won't move your Spaces, folders your rules use, or cloud sync folders. If a plan looks risky, for example it would flatten a folder or touch app data, Sortio stops and offers safer alternatives.
Undo puts files back where they were, even if you moved some of them afterwards. If a file can't go back, because you deleted it or something new is in its place, Sortio tells you which file and why, and puts back everything else. Every change is also listed in Activity in the sidebar, where Put everything back reverses all of Sortio's sorts at once.
What it won't do
- Set up automatic rules. Rules run on their own on new files without asking first, so you set them up yourself under Advanced → Rules in the sidebar (see the rules engine). The assistant can sort a folder once instead.
- Delete files or folders. It has no tool for it.
- Unrelated tasks. It only helps with your files and with Sortio, not writing or general questions.
Everything that was in the app before 9.0 is still there: the full Sort page, Search, Rules, Integrations and People & topics are under Advanced in the sidebar.
Simple mode
The full assistant runs on Sortio Cloud. In these cases Home switches to simple mode and tells you why:
- Your AI is a local model or your own API key
- Sorting, adding dates to names, finding files and undo all work, using the AI you chose. In Offline Mode everything, including answers to questions, runs on your own model.
- Your AI allowance is used up
- Finding files and undo still work.
- You're signed out
- Sign in to use the full assistant.
Simple mode understands the common requests, but it can't look inside folders for you or plan moves of whole folders and apps.
What the assistant sends
With Sortio Cloud, your messages and what the assistant looks at with its tools go to Sortio's servers and our AI provider (OpenAI) so it can decide the next step. That means file and folder names, sizes and dates in the folders it lists or searches. It does not read what is inside your files.
- A sort the assistant plans works like any other sort: Sortio reads inside your files only when Analyze file contents is on (Settings → General, off by default). See security.
- Your chats are saved on your computer (the last 30 appear under Recent). How long Sortio's servers keep request data is set out in the Privacy Policy.
- In Offline Mode, simple mode runs on your own model and nothing you type leaves your computer.
- The assistant uses a small part of your AI allowance.