---
title: "Navigation and the tree"
description: "The left rail, a file tree built for tens of thousands of notes, and the folder page."
---

# Navigation and the tree

Getting around Notarium rests on two pillars: a narrow **rail** on the left (modeled on the Activity Bar in VS Code) and a **file tree** in the wide panel next to it. The rail moves you between major surfaces; the tree moves you within a space, through folders and notes.

## The left rail

Top to bottom: **Home** (the brain logo) · **Files** · **★ Favorites** · **Agents** · **Graph** · **Search** · **Trash** · **Settings**.

- **Home** — the space dashboard: activity, projects, knowledge-base hygiene (see [Dashboard](/docs/guides/dashboard/)).
- **Files** — the unified content section. The Feed, the folder page, and the open note are **three faces of one section**, so the Files icon stays highlighted on all three. Clicking it opens the default view — the [Feed](/docs/guides/feed/).
- **★ Favorites** — not a separate route but a **tree lens**: it filters the tree down to favorited notes, folders, and projects. It is mutually exclusive with Files on the rail — only one is highlighted at a time.
- **Agents**, **Graph**, **Trash**, **Settings** — utility surfaces (agent memory, the [knowledge graph](/docs/concepts/knowledge-graph/), the [trash](/docs/guides/trash/), settings).
- **Search** sits deliberately near the end: the icon duplicates Spotlight, which you already reach with `⌘P` and through the search box in the top bar (see [Search and Spotlight](/docs/guides/search-spotlight/)).

Almost every item is a real link, so a middle-click or `Ctrl`-click opens it in a new tab. The narrow rail strip is always visible; the collapse button hides only the wide panel with the tree.

## The file tree

The tree is built for **tens of thousands of notes**: it is virtualized, and folder contents load as you expand them. From the tree you:

- create, rename, and delete folders — including leaving them empty (a folder does not vanish when its last note is removed);
- drag notes and whole folders with the mouse;
- rename in place and work through context menus.

You can create a note from the panel header (the **Collapse · Refresh · New** buttons), from the "New…" context-menu item, or with a keyboard shortcut.

> [!tip] Changing the title or folder moves the file
> A note has a stable internal identifier that survives renaming and relocation. Changing the folder or title of an existing note **moves the file rather than spawning a duplicate**.

## The folder page

Any folder can have a **body** — an overview page for the section, like a parent page in Notion or a folder-note in Obsidian. Technically it is an ordinary `index.md` note inside the folder itself: it lands in the graph, search, and links for free, and is edited and versioned like any other note.

- A folder **without** a page still opens as a virtual overview page: the folder title and a summary of its direct children.
- The **Edit** button opens a draft of the page; the `index.md` file itself is created only on the first save, once a body exists. Notarium does not spawn empty `index.md` files.
- The cover page is hidden from the folder's list of children but remains visible in the graph and in search.

A link to a folder is stable — it resolves by a stable identifier and does not break on rename or relocation.