Create your first SmolFS workspace

By the end of this guide, you will have a local workspace folder that keeps a file after you close and reopen it.

What you need

Check SmolFS

smolfs doctor

If the storage backend is missing, run:

smolfs doctor --install

Create a local volume

smolfs init demo --dev

A volume is a named workspace. --dev keeps the backing data on this machine, which is the easiest way to try SmolFS.

Open the workspace as a folder

smolfs mount demo ./workspace

SmolFS creates ./workspace if it does not already exist.

Write and save a file

echo hello > ./workspace/hello.txt
smolfs flush demo

flush asks SmolFS to save important recent writes.

Close and reopen the workspace

smolfs unmount demo
smolfs mount demo ./workspace
cat ./workspace/hello.txt

You should see:

hello

Unmount the workspace when you are done:

smolfs unmount demo

If you already used the name demo, pick another volume name such as agent-demo-1. Volume names can use letters, numbers, ., _, and -.