File System Zome

What is File System Zome and what is it for?

File System Zome is a reusable component that gives Holochain apps a file system: files kept on the app's shared data store and indexed by path. It exists so that Holochain projects needing documents, images or other files can organise them in familiar folders and filenames instead of building that layer themselves.

File System Zome is a reusable piece of software for Holochain apps: where an app needs somewhere to keep files, this project supplies it. Files are stored on the shared data store that the app's participants hold together, and each one is indexed by its path — the folder-and-filename address a computer user already knows. A Holochain app that needs documents, images or recordings can include this project rather than inventing its own filing scheme.

The idea is a familiar one translated to a network with no central machine holding the files. A directory becomes a set of connected records, and a filename an address into that set. Saving a new version does not overwrite the old one: it adds a record that points back at the previous version, and reading a file follows that chain to the newest copy. Files carry their author, and each change sends a notification so an open app can refresh itself.

One documented example is listing a directory: asking for everything under /documents returns files in that folder and in folders beneath it, such as /documents/reports and /documents/reports/2024. That is the behaviour a file browser needs in order to draw a tree. The repository's documentation folder carries the fuller design — ARCHITECTURE.md for the model and SPECIFICATION.md for the work still planned.

From 3 public sources, checked 23 September 2026.