Organize files

Files live on the Files page. Every file you bring into a workspace is stored there, listed in a table, and available to previews, agents and workflows. This page covers uploading files, keeping them organized with labels and views, and acting on them in bulk. For reading a file without downloading it, see Preview files.

Open the Files page

On the Ecosystem tab of the left sidebar, click More to unfold the rest of the features, then click Files. The Ecosystem page (⌘⇧E on a Mac, Ctrl+Shift+E elsewhere) lists it too, under Features.

Each file is listed by the name it was uploaded with, not the storage name SPARK gives it internally, and its icon shows its type: the letters PDF, XLS, CSV, TXT, MD, DOC or PPT on a page, or a dedicated mark for JSON and images. The same icon follows the file wherever it appears, in threads, pickers, search and workflow steps.

Upload files

There are two ways to upload: drop files straight onto the list, or use the New dialog when you want to set labels or fields first.

Drop files onto the list

Drag files, or a whole folder, from your computer and drop them anywhere on the Files table. The upload starts at once. Files dropped on a view that filters by label take that view's labels, so they show up where you dropped them.

If any of the dropped files would start a workflow, SPARK asks first, once for the whole drop: a Run workflows on this file? dialog (or Run workflows on these N files?) names the workflows that would start. Choose Upload and run to start them, Upload only to store the files without starting anything, or Cancel to drop nothing. When no workflow would start, nothing is asked.

Use the New dialog

On the Files page, click New at the top right.
The Upload Files dialog opens. Drag and drop files or a folder onto the drop zone, or click it to browse your computer.
Review the list under Selected files. Each row shows the file's size and whether it will start a workflow, for example 2 workflows to be triggered (hover it to see which) or No workflows to be triggered. Use the remove control on any row to drop a file before uploading.
Optionally set Labels, and any fields your workspace has added to Files (see File fields). The values apply to every file in the batch.
Leave Trigger workflows selected to let the files start matching workflows, or clear it for a plain upload. It is on by default.
Click Submit. The button shows the count, for example Submit (3 files).

The dialog closes as soon as you submit, and the upload carries on in the background.

The Upload Files dialog: drop files, apply labels, and submit.

Follow the upload

Every upload, whether dropped or submitted from New, appears in an Uploads card at the bottom right of the screen. It reads Uploading 0 of 2 files while the files go up, each one marked Processing or Waiting, then 2 files uploaded, with each file's type and size, or how many failed. A failed file shows the reason, and a retry control sends it again. Close the card once nothing is still uploading.

The upload keeps going if you leave the page, and the card stays visible across the workspace until it finishes.

The Uploads card once an upload has finished.

Supported file types

Uploads accept CSV, TXT, PDF, XLSX, XLS, DAT, MD, JSON, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), and the images PNG, JPG, JPEG and WebP. Files of other types are skipped when dropped or browsed, and a drop says how many it skipped.

A dropped folder is walked, subfolders included, and its supported files are added, up to 200 files at once. A larger or very deep folder is refused whole rather than half-imported, with a message saying why. Files your operating system leaves behind are skipped silently.

Uploading and previewing are separate questions. Word, PowerPoint, JSON and DAT files upload and can be read by agents and workflows, but they do not have an in-app preview. See Preview files for the types that do.

Files from other places

Files also arrive without anyone opening the Files page. SPARK labels each one by where it came from, so a filter or a saved view can gather them:

In a thread. Drop a file on a thread's composer, or pick Upload files from its + menu, and it attaches to the message you are writing, with its own progress. It is stored in Files with the label Uploaded in Chat. See Start a thread.
In a task. Upload a file into a task's Files tab, or drop it anywhere on the task, and it is stored in Files with the label Uploaded in Tasks. See Create a task.
Over SFTP. Counterparties push files to a Managed SFTP account. Each file carries the label Uploaded with SFTP, and a second label named after the SFTP user that sent it, so one feed's files are a filter away. The SFTP button in the header of the Files page opens the Managed SFTP settings.
From the Mailbox. The workflow the Mailbox offers, Save emails sent to the Mailbox, keeps each email's attachments in Files with the label Mailbox.
From a connected mailbox. A workflow's Save Emails step can also save emails and their attachments from a Microsoft 365 or Gmail mailbox. See Email ingestion.

A file attached in a thread or uploaded into a task starts no workflow.

Each file's labels say where it came from. SFTP opens the Managed SFTP settings.

Organize with labels

Labels are the primary way to group and find files. In the New dialog, once at least one file is selected, a Labels selector appears:

Open the Labels selector.
Pick one or more existing labels, or type a new name to create a label on the spot and choose its color.
Selected labels apply to every file in the current upload.

If you open the dialog while a label filter is active on the Files page, that filter is pre-selected, so new files inherit the label you are already browsing by. File labels are their own set, separate from the labels used on tasks.

After upload, change a file's labels from its Labels cell in the table, or from its row ⋯ menu.

The Labels picker: pick existing labels or type a new one to create it.

Labels can also be set without you. An agent can add or remove a file's labels by name when you ask it to, creating a label that does not exist yet and giving it a color, and a workflow's Apply File Label step labels files as they arrive (see File-triggered workflows).

Choose which columns the table shows

Click Display to manage the columns of the current view: click an attribute to add it, click a shown one to remove it, and drag the rows to reorder them. Name stays first and cannot be removed.

The list offers Labels, Updated By and Updated At (shown together as Updated), and any field your workspace has added to Files, so a view can carry the metadata your process actually needs, for example a custodian or a reporting period. See File fields.

Find files with saved views

The Files table carries the same saved views as tasks: a strip of tabs across the top, starting with All. Set a filter or sort, then click Save to keep it as a view, or + to start a new one. Click a tab to switch, and right-click a tab to rename, duplicate, or delete it. Views are shared across the workspace.

You can filter and sort on Original Name, the name a file was uploaded with, even though it is not offered as a column (the Name column already shows it).

Saved views appear as tabs across the top of the Files table, starting with All.

Download the file list

Click Export on the Files toolbar to download the list as a CSV. It follows what is on screen: the current view's filters decide which files are included, its sort sets the row order, and its columns decide which fields are written out. Adjust those first to shape the file. An export holds at most 10,000 files; past that, SPARK warns you to narrow the view.

With rows selected, the export narrows to your selection instead, which is the quickest way to hand someone a list of exactly the files you have picked out.

The export lists the file records, their labels and dates; it does not download the files themselves. Use a file's row ⋯ menu and choose Download for that.

Export downloads the file list as it is currently filtered, sorted and columned.

Hover a row and click its ⋯ to act on one file:

View file opens its preview.
Set its Labels.
Start a New thread about the file, which opens with the file already in the thread's context.
Download the file under the name it was uploaded with.
Archive or Restore it. Archiving keeps all versions and metadata.
Delete it permanently, after a confirmation.

Guests on a shared space can open and download files but not change them.

Manage files in bulk

To select files, click a row's file icon: it turns into a checkbox. The checkbox in the Name header selects the current page, and a prompt then lets you select every file matching your filters. A bar replaces the toolbar with the count and these actions:

Archive and Restore move files in and out of the active list.
Export downloads the list of just the selected files.
Set labels (the labels icon) opens a dialog to choose labels for every selected file. It replaces their labels with the set you choose, and the dialog says so (This will replace the labels of 4 files.). Choosing none clears them (This will remove every labels value from 4 files.).
Delete removes the files permanently, after a Delete Record? confirmation saying how many will go.

Select files to export, relabel, archive or delete them together.