Where files live

Everything gezel knows lives in one folder — the gezel home — as plain files. On macOS and Linux that's ~/.gezel in your home directory (a machine-wide service uses a system location instead; Settings shows the active path).

~/.gezel/
  config.json         providers, default model, the current Meester
  gezels/
    {gezel}/
      gezel.md        name, role, model choice
      about.md        the gezel's character
      poppetje.json   the carved-figure look
      sessions/       chat threads, one file each
      memories/       daily notes + lessons
  projects/
    {project}/
      project.json    name, working folder, crew settings
      documents/      About + Mission Objectives
      artifacts/      everything the crew produces
        shadow/       machine-made markdown twins of workspace documents,
                      pictures, and recordings (rebuilt automatically —
                      safe to delete, not a place to put your own files)
  documents/          the shared library
  ambient/            ambient dashboard images (dated PNGs + latest.png),
                      made to be shown as wallpaper or lock screen
  history.jsonl       the audit log
  logs/               service logs (rolling)

What you can safely do

• Read anything. It's your data; nothing breaks by looking.

• Back up or sync the whole folder. Copying the folder copies your entire workshop.

• Edit with care. Character files (about.md) and documents are meant to be edited — from the app or any text editor. For structured files (config.json, thread files), prefer the app so nothing gets malformed.

A few subfolders are machinery rather than your data — runtime/, service/, bin/, index/, logs/ hold the service's own working state and rebuildable caches. Leave those to gezel; deleting them is at worst an inconvenience, never data loss. The ambient/ folder is regenerated too — point your wallpaper or lock-screen slideshow at it freely, but don't store your own images there.