Where things are stored

DiskGOup keeps three kinds of data apart, each in the directory the platform convention reserves for it. The locations come from platformdirs, so they follow the rules of the operating system rather than a hard-coded path.

The three directories

Directory	Holds	macOS	Linux	Windows
data	application state	~/Library/Application Support/diskgoup	~/.local/share/diskgoup	%LOCALAPPDATA%\diskgoup
cache	the scan index — regenerable	~/Library/Caches/diskgoup	~/.cache/diskgoup	%LOCALAPPDATA%\diskgoup\Cache
config	user-editable configuration	~/Library/Application Support/diskgoup	~/.config/diskgoup	%APPDATA%\diskgoup

The scan index lives in the cache directory on purpose: it is derived data. Delete it and the next scan rebuilds it. Nothing else in DiskGOup keeps state that cannot be recomputed.

The scan index

<cache>/diskgoup/index.db

One SQLite file holds every scan ever taken, together with their entries, skipped-entry notices, SHA-256 digests, size snapshots and the staged review list. See The scan index for the schema.

The path can be overridden with the DISKGOUP_INDEX environment variable — useful for keeping a scratch index out of the way while experimenting:

DISKGOUP_INDEX=/tmp/diskgoup-scratch.db diskgoup scan ~

Configuration

<config>/diskgoup/config.json

The file is optional — every setting has a working default, and the CLI reads nothing from it today. It exists so that settings have a home when they need one, and diskgoup reset removes it so the app starts from its defaults.

Its path can be overridden with the DISKGOUP_CONFIG environment variable, in the same way DISKGOUP_INDEX overrides the index.

The desktop app

The Electron app keeps no settings of its own beyond what the platform stores for the app itself. The CLI child process inherits the environment, so DISKGOUP_INDEX and friends work the same way under the GUI.

Removing everything

diskgoup reset

That deletes the scan index — the database and the SQLite files beside it — and writes a new, empty one in its place. Every scan goes with it; no file on your disk is touched, so the next scan reads it again. It is also the way out of an index that is corrupted or stuck.

The desktop app has the same thing in its sidebar: ⟲ Reset app, at the bottom of the left panel.

To delete the cache directory by hand instead:

rm -rf "$(python3 -c 'from platformdirs import user_cache_dir; print(user_cache_dir("diskgoup"))')"

That deletes the scan index and nothing else. The application’s data directory holds no user content — it exists so that other state has a place to live.