---
id: multi-user/add-a-favorites-tab-panel-to-the-file-browser
title: 'Add a favorites tab/panel to the file browser'
theme: multi-user
status: open
created: 2026-08-25
date_source: stated
order: 21
---

**Add a favorites tab/panel to the file browser. Make it work.** Wanted 2026-08-25. A place to pin
folders (and/or files) for one-click return, alongside the existing browse view — not a design
proposal, a working feature.

Nothing to build on directly: no favorites concept exists anywhere in `FileBrowser/` today, and no prior
todo mentions one. This is new ground, not a gap in something half-built.

What it needs, in rough shape: a way to mark a path as favorited, storage for the set (per user —
`user_settings`'s jsonb, per `settings/a-user-s-settings-should-export-and-import-as`, is the shape
already used for this kind of small per-account preference, though a dedicated table is also
defensible if favorites want their own timestamps or ordering), a tab or panel surfacing the list, and
navigation from an entry back into the browser at that path.

Ties into two things already filed rather than duplicating them: the URL model in `todo/url-state/` —
a favorited path should be a real link (`folderHref`), and a panel's folder is currently NOT
addressable outside `/files` itself, which a favorites panel will run into immediately if it lives in a
panel rather than the main screen. And a folder versus a file favorite may behave differently on open
(navigate vs. preview), worth deciding rather than assuming both work the same way.