Importing your files
Bring an existing folder of documents — Word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs, notes — into tela as a browsable page tree. The easiest way is to ask your connected AI assistant: point it at the folder and it converts and imports everything for you, then shows you what it did.
[!TIP] This needs an assistant that can reach your files — e.g. Claude Code or an agent running on your machine — connected to tela (see [[Agents & MCP]]) with editor access on the target space.
What comes in, and how
| Your file | Becomes in tela |
|---|---|
Word (.docx, .doc) |
a page |
Excel / CSV (.xlsx, .xls, .csv) |
a live sheet — formulas recompute |
| Markdown / text notes | a page |
| PDF with selectable text | a page with the file attached — searchable |
| Scanned PDF, images | a viewable attachment (not searchable — tela does no OCR) |
Nested folders become a nested page tree; a folder's README becomes its overview page.
How it goes
- Ask — e.g. "Import the folder ~/Documents/Audit-2024 into the Audit space."
- Your assistant lists what it found and tells you the plan: how many files become pages, sheets, and attachments, and anything it can't bring in as searchable text.
- You confirm, and it imports — creating the tree, converting spreadsheets to live sheets, and attaching PDFs and images.
[!NOTE] Already all markdown (e.g. an Obsidian vault)? That imports directly as a page tree — you don't need an assistant for a plain-markdown folder.
Good to know
- Spreadsheets keep their formulas. A
=SUM(...)stays live so totals recompute in tela — it isn't flattened to static numbers. - Nothing is left behind. Files that can't be turned into searchable text (scanned PDFs, images) still come in as viewable attachments, so your archive stays complete.
- Large archives import in batches (folder by folder) so a big import lands reliably.
- Everything is created with your permissions; writing needs editor access on the target space.
See also [[Agents & MCP]] and [[Spreadsheets]].