Game engines
Engines track assets through sidecar metadata and GUIDs. Move a file in Explorer and its sidecar stays behind — references break silently, and you find out when the project opens.
Windows · local-first · closed alpha
Reorganize everything.
Break nothing.
Manevo indexes your asset library read-only, lets you restructure and tag everything in a virtual tree, and makes zero writes to your files until you explicitly sync. When you do, a link lands at every old path — so path-based references keep resolving.
48,217 files indexed, 0 moved — That second number is up to you.
The fear
You've been avoiding this cleanup
for years. You're right to.
In a creative library, file paths are load-bearing. Move one file and somewhere a scene, a timeline, or a build quietly breaks — so the mess stays.
3D scenes
Linked libraries and file references resolve by path. Rename one folder and every scene pointing into it loses its sources.
Video timelines
Editors reference media by where it lives. Tidy your footage drive and the next project open is a wall of offline clips and an afternoon of relinking.
so it stays: final_v2\ final_v2_OLD\ new_folder (3)\ DEFINITELY_final\
The mechanism
Plan the move. Then make it.
Four steps. Only the last one writes to your files — and it asks first.
01
Index — read-only
Point Manevo at your folders — local drives, NAS shares, all of it. It builds an index in its own local database. Nothing is moved, copied, or touched: your files stay exactly where they are while you plan.
scanner: read-only · 0 writes to your files
02
Reorganize — virtually
Restructure and tag in a tree that lives entirely in the database. Drag files anywhere, build the hierarchy you always wanted — every change is a database entry, not a disk operation, and all of it is reversible before you commit.
vfs: DB-only · fully reversible
03
Review — the move plan
Before anything happens, you see the full plan: every move, the mechanism it will use, every warning and conflict. In Manevo, amber means exactly one thing — the disk is about to be involved.
plan: 3 moves · 2 hardlink shims · 1 relabel
04
Sync — one deliberate commit
One explicit command, journaled from the first move — if anything interrupts a sync, Manevo resumes exactly where it stopped. Only files whose location changed are moved, a link lands at every old path, and the result verifies against BLAKE3 checksums.
journaled · non-clobbering · verified
A link lands at every old path.
oldD:\Assets\textures_old\brick_04.pngstill resolves
newD:\Assets\Materials\Brick\brick_04.pngthe move you wanted
On NTFS, a same-volume move leaves a hardlink behind: the old path and the new path are the same file on disk. No admin prompt, no elevation, nothing for a tool to notice — anything that kept the old path keeps reading the same bytes.
And the old structure doesn't silently vanish, because that's not our call to make. Old paths keep working until you retire them — one deliberate action, just like sync.
Why Manevo
Nothing moves until you say so.
The safety model isn't a feature of the product. It's the architecture.
Read-only indexing
First load writes nothing to your files. Manevo builds its index in its own local SQLite database — that's Manevo's file, not yours.
A reversible middle state
The virtual tree is pure database. Reorganize, rename, tag, undo — your disk doesn't know any of it happened until you sync.
An inspectable commit
Sync shows its full move plan first — each file, each mechanism, each warning. You approve the diff, not the idea of it.
Journaled, verified moves
Every move is journaled before it happens and verified against BLAKE3 checksums after. An interrupted sync resumes — it doesn't strand files.
Search that keeps up
Tag across projects, search across drives — results in keystrokes, across tens of thousands of files. The texture from 2023 stops hiding in final_v2_OLD.
Local-first, yours
No cloud, no account, no proprietary library format. Uninstall tomorrow and your files are exactly where the filesystem says they are.
Compared
The middle state is the difference.
Plenty of good tools index, tag, or browse a library. The gap is between planning a reorganization and committing one.
| Approach | What happens to your reorganization |
|---|---|
| Library importers (Eagle) | Files are imported into the app's own library — original paths break on day one. |
| Tag layers (TagSpaces, Tabbles, TagStudio) | Tags all the way down — the reorganization never reaches your disk. |
| In-place browsers (Adobe Bridge, Connecter) | Fine for browsing, but restructuring is still raw file moves — the same risk as Explorer. |
| Catalogers (WinCatalog) | A read-only index of what you have. Reorganizing isn't the ambition. |
| Project version control (Anchorpoint) | Versions your projects — restructuring a cross-tool library is a different job. |
| Manevo | A reversible virtual reorganization, then one path-preserving, tool-aware commit to the real filesystem. |
That last row is the specific combination we claim — and the compatibility matrix that backs it ships publicly.
The fine print, first
Claims you can check.
Every promise on this page is a mechanism, not an adjective — and mechanisms come with conditions. Here are the ones that matter.
- “Zero writes to your files until you sync.”
- Manevo builds its index in its own local database from first load. That database is Manevo's file, not yours — and this page never pretends otherwise.
- The old structure doesn't vanish.
- After sync, links hold every old path until you retire them — deliberately, on your schedule. We don't pretend the mess evaporates; we make it inert, inspectable, and yours to end.
- Tool claims wait for evidence.
- Manevo is being tested against real Unity, Blender, and Premiere Pro projects before we claim anything about yours. The compatibility matrix — what's verified, per tool, per version — ships publicly, and no tool name enters our marketing before its row is validated.
- Failure modes, documented.
- Crash mid-sync, antivirus locks, cloud-sync clients, external drives: the trust docs will state what happens in each case — they ship publicly alongside the compatibility matrix, because you'd find out anyway. In this category, candor is the differentiator.
FAQ
Reasonable questions.
Why should I trust a tool to move my files?
You shouldn't — not on adjectives. Manevo's answer is a mechanism you can inspect: nothing moves until you press Sync, the full move plan is shown before anything happens, every move is journaled and non-clobbering (the new path is created first, then the old one is handled), a link lands at every old path, and results verify against BLAKE3 checksums. If a sync is interrupted, it resumes where it stopped. The trust documentation — shipping publicly with the beta — will enumerate when each guarantee holds, and where its limits are.
What exactly does Manevo write before I sync?
One thing: its own index database, stored locally. Indexing, reorganizing, and tagging are all reads of your filesystem and writes to that database. Your files and folders are not touched until you explicitly sync — that claim is absolute because it's a mechanism fact, not a promise of good behavior.
What about Unity projects?
Unity doesn't resolve assets by path — it uses GUIDs stored in .meta files, and Unity's own documentation warns against links inside Assets/. So links are the wrong mechanism there, and Manevo never plants them in engine-managed folders. The current alpha goes further: files in engine-managed scope are excluded from sync entirely until our compatibility testing validates the .meta-aware path on real projects. When we claim it, it will have survived someone's actual game first.
What happens to the old folder structure after a sync?
It stays, held by links — that's the feature. Every old path keeps resolving until you decide nothing depends on it anymore. A dashboard will show which old paths are still being used, and retiring the unused ones is one deliberate action, just like sync. The mess ends when you say it ends.
Why Windows only?
Because that's where the pain meets the platform mechanics we use — NTFS hardlinks are what let a vacated path keep resolving with no privilege prompts. A macOS version depends on how v1 lands; asking for it is genuinely useful signal.
What will it cost?
The desktop app will be a one-time purchase: pay once, use it offline, no account. If we ever offer hosted convenience services, a free self-hosted path will exist alongside them. Final pricing is announced with v1.0 — alpha testers get lifetime licenses as thanks.
Closed alpha — Windows
Manevo is being tested against real Unity, Blender, and Premiere projects before we claim anything about yours. If you have tens of thousands of files and a folder structure you've been afraid to touch, we want you in.
Requests go through the Portyl Studios contact page — mention what tools you run and how your library is laid out. The compatibility matrix is built from testers like you, and it ships publicly.
No newsletter. You'll hear from us when there's a build worth your time.