Blueprints

Day one

Use a starter. Open items. Do not edit the schema yet.

A Blueprint is attached to a library. It names the fields you see on each item: title, duration, author, whatever you add later. The starter already has enough to browse.

Later, if you want fields

Open the Blueprint editor from the library. Add a field when you keep typing the same fact by hand. Map it from file data when the file already has that fact (duration, page count, a folder name).

Cover source can be auto, a Windows system thumbnail, or none. None shows the Blueprint icon.

You do not need a perfect schema. Add one field when it earns its keep.

When you map a field, Browse data lists paths from a sample item. You can search by path or by the live value. You do not have to type a dot path from memory.

Auto-fill does not overwrite you

Auto-fill writes empty fields from the file, or from a mapping you set. If you typed a title, Recall leaves it. Manual edits win.

Fill all items applies the mappings to every item in libraries that use this Blueprint. That is a batch. It still skips values you entered yourself.

Online metadata is optional

Scrapers and cover search can fill fields from the network. That needs a connection, and some routes need a key you paste in Settings. Skip them. The library still works.

Online metadata is a convenience on top of files you already have. It is not how items enter the library.

Then you open the item

Fields show on the Workbench. The Blueprint is the form. The Workbench is the object.