Complete tutorial to automate file sorting, renaming, and smart organization
This tutorial will show you how to use OpenClaw to automate file organization, sorting, renaming, and creating intelligent file management systems. You'll learn to leverage OpenClaw's file system access to keep your files organized automatically. Estimated time: 20-30 minutes.
By the end of this tutorial, you'll have:
Before starting:
Start by organizing your Downloads folder, which often becomes cluttered:
You: "Organize my Downloads folder. Sort files by type into subfolders:
Images, Documents, Videos, Archives, and Others"
OpenClaw: [Scans Downloads, creates folders, moves files by type]
You: "Organize Downloads by date. Create folders for each month
and move files to their respective month folders"
You: "Group files by year, then by month within each year folder"
Use OpenClaw to intelligently rename files based on their content or metadata:
You: "Rename all PDF files in ~/Downloads to include their title.
Read the PDF content to determine appropriate names"
OpenClaw: [Reads PDFs, extracts titles, renames files]
You: "Rename all images in ~/Pictures to include date taken.
Format: YYYY-MM-DD_original-name.jpg"
You: "Rename music files to include artist and album name from metadata"
You: "Rename all files in ~/Documents/Projects to use a consistent format:
project-name_document-type_number.ext"
You: "Add a prefix '2024-' to all files in the current directory"
Set up automated rules for ongoing file organization:
You: "Create a skill that automatically organizes my Downloads folder
every day at 6 PM. Sort files by type and move them to appropriate folders"
OpenClaw: [Creates skill with automation logic]
You: "Set up these organization rules:
- Screenshots go to ~/Pictures/Screenshots
- PDFs go to ~/Documents/PDFs
- Code files go to ~/Documents/Code
- Images go to ~/Pictures/Downloads
- Everything else stays in Downloads"
OpenClaw: [Creates skill implementing these rules]
Use AI to intelligently categorize documents based on their content:
You: "Read all documents in ~/Documents and organize them into folders
by topic: Work, Personal, Finance, Health, etc.
Analyze the content to determine the category"
OpenClaw: [Reads documents, categorizes by content, creates folders, moves files]
You: "Organize my project files. Group files by project name mentioned
in the document content. Create a folder for each project"
You: "Find all files related to 'Website Redesign' project and move them
to ~/Projects/Website-Redesign"
Find and handle duplicate files:
You: "Find all duplicate files in ~/Downloads. Compare by file size
and content hash. List duplicates for review"
OpenClaw: [Scans files, identifies duplicates, provides list]
You: "Remove duplicate files, keeping the newest version of each.
Move deleted files to ~/Trash/Duplicates first"
You: "Find duplicates across ~/Documents and ~/Downloads,
keep the one in Documents, remove from Downloads"
Automatically archive files that haven't been accessed recently:
You: "Find all files in ~/Documents that haven't been accessed in 6 months.
Move them to ~/Archive/2024/ and organize by original folder structure"
OpenClaw: [Finds old files, creates archive structure, moves files]
You: "Compress all files in ~/Archive/2023 into a zip file,
then delete the original files"
You: "Create monthly archive zip files for all files older than 1 year"
Create scheduled automation for continuous file organization:
You: "Set up a daily task at 6 PM to:
1. Organize Downloads folder
2. Rename new files appropriately
3. Move files to correct locations
4. Notify me when complete"
OpenClaw: [Creates automation skill with cron scheduling]
You: "Every Sunday, run a cleanup task:
- Find and remove duplicate files
- Archive files older than 6 months
- Generate a report of organization activities"
OpenClaw: [Creates weekly automation]
You: "Organize my photos:
1. Sort by date taken (YYYY/MM structure)
2. Rename to include date and location if available
3. Remove duplicates
4. Create albums for special events
5. Generate a summary report"
You: "Organize my work documents:
- Group by project/client name
- Sort by document type (proposals, invoices, contracts)
- Archive completed projects older than 1 year
- Create a master index of all documents"
You: "Organize my media files:
- Music: Artist/Album structure
- Videos: Genre/Year structure
- Podcasts: Show/Episode structure
- Remove duplicates and corrupted files"
Now that you can organize files with OpenClaw: