epic: Better files & links

[0xSage]

Motivation

• Users (esp Windows) have discrete preferences for how to store/share assets
• e.g. model binaries, model configs, in the future, assistant tar.gzs
• Placing app files in home directory messes up ppl's dev envs #1358

Community request

• #1358

Specs

Users can change default Jan app data location

• Give users control over how their own fs is used
• Good UX around error handling, interrupted migrations

Users can restore to a clean build

• If users mess up the /jan folder structure, it should be recoverable

Users can thoroughly delete Jan & purge data

• No dangling files.
• No running various sh scripts to clean up data.

Open Questions

1. Where, what, and why are we currently storing data?

MacOS

~/jan : janroot ~/Library/Application Support/jan : Cookie, session for electron app (chromium) ~/Library/Caches/jan-updater, ~/Library/Caches/jan.ai.app, ~/Library/Caches/jan.ai.app.ShipIt : Cache

Window

C:\User\%USERPROFILE%\jan : janroot C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\jan : app installed folder, will be remove if we uninstall app C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\jan : cache folder for jan app C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\electron : cache folder generated by electron - chromium related

Linux:

~/jan: janroot ~/.config/jan: Cache ~/.npm/_cacache: Folder cache generated on linux when call a function getTempCache in typescript

2. Where should this data go?

• User data & Jan specific assets, e.g. the model/assistant/thread.jsons
• User data & shared assets, e.g. model binaries, RAG files (which could be shared across other apps)
• Application assets, e.g. cache, logs, and other app data

3. What should the reset & deletion behavior be for these files?

• How does it vary across Systems? Mac, Windows, Linux.

Tasklist

Design

• [x] #1010
• [x] #1052

Implementation

• [ ] #1435
• [x] #1618
• [x] #1619
• [ ] #1621
• [ ] #1620

Not in Scope

• Letting users change Jan specific subfolder paths for /models, /assistants, rag attachments, that contain the jsons
• Exclude files, block Jan from accessing certain paths
• A full Obsidian vault inspired UX: https://help.obsidian.md/Files+and+folders/Manage+vaults
• Everything else. Let's scope this tightly pls.

Appendix

I'm inspired by Obsidian's philosophy of letting users manage how their filesystem is used. Sidenote (nonurgent): We should strive to evolve our SDK/fs wrapper towards this level of user ownership and flexibility.