Watched Folders
Watched folders are the foundation of MakerVault. Each watched folder is a directory on your computer that MakerVault scans and monitors for design files.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”When you add a watched folder, MakerVault:
- Recursively walks the entire directory tree
- Identifies files with supported extensions
- Indexes each file’s name, path, size, type, and modification date
- Extracts metadata from supported file types (like LightBurn files)
- Computes a BLAKE3 content hash for duplicate detection
- Starts a background file watcher for real-time updates
Managing folders
Section titled “Managing folders”Adding
Section titled “Adding”Click Add Folder in the sidebar or use the welcome screen. Select any folder on your computer. The first level of subfolders is expanded in the sidebar by default so you can drill straight into them.
Filtering
Section titled “Filtering”Click a folder name in the sidebar to show only files from that folder. Click All Files to see everything.
Reordering
Section titled “Reordering”Hover over any folder in the sidebar to reveal a grip handle on the left. Drag the handle to reorder folders.
Removing
Section titled “Removing”Right-click a folder and select Remove. This removes the folder from MakerVault’s index. Your actual files on disk are never modified or deleted.
Syncing macOS fonts
Section titled “Syncing macOS fonts”MakerVault can watch your macOS font directories so all your installed fonts appear in the library alongside your design files.
There are two ways to sync fonts:
- During onboarding — When you first launch MakerVault, step 2 of the welcome flow offers to sync your fonts.
- From the sidebar — If fonts haven’t been synced yet, a font icon appears in the Watched Folders section header. Click it to open a confirmation dialog.
Syncing adds three watched folders:
| Folder | Contents |
|---|---|
~/Library/Fonts | Your personal (User) fonts |
/Library/Fonts | Fonts installed for all users (App fonts) |
/System/Library/Fonts | macOS system fonts |
Once synced, font files are grouped under a collapsible Fonts parent in the sidebar. Clicking the parent filters your file list to show only font files. The font sync icon disappears from the section header once any of these directories are being watched.
Performance
Section titled “Performance”MakerVault scans files extremely fast:
- 5,000 files in under 1 second
- Files are inserted in batches of 500 per database transaction
- Content hashing runs in the background so it doesn’t block the UI
Hidden files
Section titled “Hidden files”MakerVault automatically skips all hidden files and directories, including:
.DS_Storefiles._macOS resource forks.gitdirectories- Any file or folder starting with
.