Skip to content

Where ShotWork keeps its files

ShotWork keeps its settings, fetched components and caches in one folder for each user of the computer. Your shot selects, reels, footage and songs are never stored there; they stay wherever you saved them.

The folder

Platform Folder
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\ShotWork
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/ShotWork
Use a different folder

Set the environment variable SHOTWORK_DATA_DIR to a folder path before starting ShotWork, and everything below lives there instead: a way to run ShotWork against a second, separate set of files on the same computer.

What is inside

Name What it holds If you delete it
ffmpeg, libmpv Components ShotWork fetched. On Windows libmpv is only here if you installed one yourself; ShotWork otherwise uses the copy that ships beside the executable. Fetched again when needed.
bootstrap_paths.json Where those components were found. Found again.
settings.json Window layout, recent files, snapping, the shot band colors and shade, and how the Library shows shots. Those settings go back to their defaults.
hotkeys.json Only the hotkeys you changed. Every hotkey goes back to its default.
license.txt Your license key on the first line and the email it was activated with on the second. See The free tier and your license. ShotWork goes back to the free tier. Enter the key and email again under Help › Licensing….
presets Your field presets, one file each. Your own presets are gone; the built-in ones remain.
overlay_templates Your overlay templates, one file each. Your templates are gone.
logos The logo pool, and which value each logo stands for. The pool and every assignment are gone.
library.json Which shot selects and reels your Library lists. The Library starts empty; each file returns when you open or save it.
tags.json, field_values.json, projects.json The words autocomplete offers: tags, field values, and project names, so a project can be offered before any shot uses it. Rebuilt as you use tags, values and project names again.
music.json Your music library. The songs themselves stay where they are. The music library starts empty.
thumbnails One small picture per shot. Rebuilt: see Settings › Thumbnail Cache….
beat_grids Each song's beat analysis. Each song is analyzed again the next time it is used.
beat_this_engine The downbeat engine, if you installed it. Remove it from Settings › Downbeat Engine… instead. See Downbeat engine.
python A copy of Python, fetched only for the downbeat engine to run on. Nothing else uses it, and it is not the Python you may have installed yourself. Fetched again the next time the engine is installed.
music_beds, still_previews, gap_preview.mp4 Preview media for reels. Made again when a reel needs them.
recovery Autosave snapshots of work you have not saved. That unsaved work is gone.
logs What ShotWork wrote down about its own errors. See Report a problem. Written again from the next launch. Nothing you made is in there.
first_run_complete A marker that the rights notice was shown. The rights notice shows again at the next launch.
first_run_downloads_offered A marker that Set up ShotWork was offered on the first launch. That window opens again at the next launch, if a component is still missing.
profiles One folder per profile, holding that profile's own copy of the files that belong to a profile. That profile starts empty.

Profiles

A profile is a second set of everything ShotWork shows you, in a folder of its own under profiles: its own Library, recent files and settings, its remembered values, tags and project names, its music, logos, templates and presets, its thumbnails and beat grids, and its autosave snapshots. The components, bootstrap_paths.json, your hotkeys and your license are the computer's, not the profile's, and every profile shares them.

Start ShotWork with --profile NAME and it runs on that profile; the window title reads ShotWork - Demo for a profile called demo. The reason to have one: a demo or a tutorial that should show one client's work and nothing else, without a filter to remember mid-recording. A second shortcut with --profile demo is the way to switch; a file double-clicked while one profile is running opens on the default profile. An AI assistant sees the profile you last chose Connect from; see Connecting from a profile.