File Operations

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What Reagent Can Do

• Move, copy and rename files and folders.
• Create folders.
• List folders and find files by name.
• Read and search text files, such as scripts, CSVs and REAPER project files.

• Delete files or folders. There’s no delete action. The one exception is an overwrite: a move or copy that overwrites replaces what was at the destination. See Built-in Safeguards.
• Run shell commands, scripts or other programs.
• Reach folders outside the allowed locations.
• Open audio, images or other binary files as text. For audio, see Audio Analysis.

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Example Prompts

Move every WAV on my Desktop that ends in _v01 into ~/Projects/Forest/Bounces

Create a Wwise Import folder next to my REAPER project and copy everything in ~/Renders/Footsteps into it

Rename take_1.wav through take_12.wav in ~/Desktop/Doors to door_slam_01.wav through door_slam_12.wav

Create Renders, Stems and Wwise folders in ~/Projects/Forest

What's in /Volumes/SFX/Impacts? Show the biggest files first.

Find every .wav or .WAV file under /Volumes/SFX/Foley with "creak" or "Creak" in its name and copy them into ~/Projects/Forest/Foley

Which scripts in my REAPER Scripts folder call GetMediaItemTake?

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Reading and Searching

• Name the folder. Otherwise Reagent may search your whole home folder, which takes longer. For content searches, name a scripts or documents folder, not a whole sound library.
• Point to the part you need. Reagent reads long files a part at a time, so name the section or column.
• Mention both capitalizations. Finding by name is case-sensitive: “creak” doesn’t find “Creak”, and “.wav” doesn’t find ”.WAV”. If your names mix cases, say so, for example “WAV or wav files with creak or Creak in the name”.

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Where Reagent Can Reach

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Approvals and Permission Modes

• Default permissions asks before every change: renames, new folders, moves and copies.
• Auto-review asks only before a move or copy that requests an overwrite, or a batch where any item does.
• Full access never asks. The allowed locations and safeguards still apply.

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The Approval Card

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Built-in Safeguards

• No overwrites unless Reagent asks. A move or copy stops if something already exists at the destination, unless Reagent explicitly asks to overwrite it. The card then shows a warning, and every mode except Full access asks you first.
• Renames never overwrite. A rename stops if the new name is already taken. Because macOS and Windows treat door.wav and Door.wav as the same file, a rename that only changes capitalization is usually refused too. Rename it to a temporary name first, then to the new name.
• The whole batch is checked first. Before a batch of moves, copies or renames changes anything, Reagent checks that each source exists, each destination is free (or overwriting was requested), no two items go to the same place, and no folder goes inside itself. If any item fails these checks, nothing changes.

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Stopping and Undoing

• No undo button. REAPER’s undo doesn’t reverse file changes, and Reagent has no undo button for them. Ask Reagent to move or rename things back, and remove unwanted copies or new folders yourself. See Undoing Changes.
• Items run one at a time. If one fails, for example on a full disk or denied access, the batch stops there and finished items stay changed.
• Stopping doesn’t roll back. Stopping Reagent halts a batch of moves before the next item. A batch of copies or renames, or a folder copy that has already started, may still run to the end.
• Moves to another drive are two steps. Reagent copies each item, then deletes the original, so large folders take longer. If you stop one, the item it was working on may end up in both places. If it was overwriting something, what was at the destination may already be deleted.

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