Images and Video

Images and video are files in your tree like any other. They sit next to your notes, render inline, and a CDN serves them. This page covers what happens once a media file exists; Uploads and Media covers getting one in.

What renders inline

Both can also be nodes on a canvas board, so a board can hold a screenshot next to the spec that describes it. See Canvas Boards.

How media is stored and served

Media is the one category whose bytes are not file content. The bytes go to object storage and the file record keeps a CDN URL, the dimensions and, for video, the duration. Opening the file streams it straight from the CDN, so a 400 MB video plays without passing through the app.

Two consequences follow from that split:

• Media content is not editable. There is no text to edit, and Monofile refuses content writes to a media-backed file. To replace a media file, upload again.

• Agents cannot create media with the file-write tools. Those tools write text. An agent can read a media file's metadata, move it, delete it, link to it and put it on a board, but it cannot create the bytes.

Deleting a media file deletes the stored object too, so removing a large video reclaims the space.

Video thumbnails

A video gets a poster frame automatically. If the browser did not produce one during upload, Monofile generates it server side from the video itself, with a check that skips a black opening frame. The thumbnail appears on the file card and as the player's poster before playback starts.

Images inside markdown

Dragging or pasting an image into the markdown editor takes a different path from uploading a file. Monofile stores the image as an attachment of the document and references it from the markdown as an ordinary ![alt](url). It does not appear as a row in your file tree. Drag the corner handle to resize it, and the editor writes the size back into the markdown.

Monofile cleans up attachments that no document references any more, so deleting an image from a note does not leave litter behind for long. Inline attachments are images only, and smaller than a full media upload allows.

Size ceiling

A media upload can be up to 500 MB per file, and must be an image or a video. The check reads the file's type, not its extension, so renaming a file does not get it past the check.

Audio files are not supported yet

.mp3, .wav, .m4a and friends are not in the recognised set, and uploads accept only images and video, so an audio upload fails. If you need audio alongside a project, host it elsewhere and link to it, including from a link node on a canvas board.

PDFs are not a file type, but the assistant can read them

There is no PDF viewer, and the uploader accepts images and video only, so you cannot upload a PDF into your workspace. A .pdf that reaches the tree another way shows as a download card, not as a rendered page.

You can attach a PDF to a message to the built-in AI assistant, along with PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP images. Attachments are capped at 10 MB each and five per message, and the assistant reads the document to answer about it. For "here is the spec, write me notes from it", the assistant reads the PDF and writes markdown files you keep. The assistant needs a Pro or Team plan, covered in The AI Assistant.

Next steps