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Folder Structure

The problem​

Your organization has hundreds of documents — contracts, policies, reports, templates. You need a folder structure that scales and keeps queries fast.

The solution​

Organize by document type and department. Each folder gets its own .it-index.

company/
├── contracts/
│   ├── active/
│   │   ├── acme-service-2026.it
│   │   ├── globaltech-nda-2026.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   ├── expired/
│   │   ├── acme-service-2025.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   └── templates/
│       ├── service-agreement.it
│       ├── nda-template.it
│       └── .it-index
├── hr/
│   ├── employees/
│   │   ├── ahmed-offer.it
│   │   ├── sarah-review-q1.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   ├── policies/
│   │   ├── remote-work.it
│   │   ├── pto-policy.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   └── templates/
│       ├── offer-letter.it
│       ├── review-template.it
│       └── .it-index
├── finance/
│   ├── invoices/
│   │   ├── 2026-001.it
│   │   ├── 2026-002.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   ├── budgets/
│   │   ├── q1-2026.it
│   │   └── .it-index
│   └── templates/
│       ├── invoice-template.it
│       └── .it-index
└── reports/
    ├── engineering/
    │   ├── q1-2026.it
    │   └── .it-index
    └── sales/
        ├── q1-2026.it
        └── .it-index

Principles​

1. One folder per logical boundary​

Contracts and HR documents have different access controls. Keep them in separate folders — never mix document types in a single folder.

2. Active vs archived​

Separate active documents from expired/archived ones. Queries against active/ are faster and more relevant.

3. Templates live with their domain​

Put the invoice template in finance/templates/, not in a global templates/ folder. Teams own their templates.

4. Shallow indexes per folder​

Each folder gets its own .it-index. Build them all:

intenttext index ./company --recursive

This creates one .it-index per subfolder — not one giant index for everything.

When to create subfolders​

SituationAction
> 50 files in a folderSplit by year, status, or category
Different access controlsSeparate folders
Different teams own the filesSeparate folders
Templates vs documentstemplates/ subfolder

Building indexes​

# Build index for one folder
intenttext index ./company/contracts/active

# Build all indexes recursively
intenttext index ./company --recursive

Querying across the structure​

# All contacts across the company
intenttext query ./company --type contact --format table

# All pending deadlines in contracts
intenttext query ./company/contracts/active --type deadline --status pending --format table

# Templates only
intenttext query ./company --type meta --content "template" --format json

Next steps​