File operations

Agent commands. Your AI agent uses these nodes in workflows. You don’t configure them directly.

The file nodes read, write, copy, move, and delete files on disk. They handle both text and binary data with automatic encoding detection. For processing file contents — transforming data, extracting information — pipe the output to a code or LLM node.

read-file

Reads a file and stores its contents in the shared store.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`file_path`	str	Yes	-	Path to the file to read
`encoding`	str	No	`utf-8`	Text encoding (ignored for binary files)

Output

Key	Type	Description
`content`	str	File contents (with line numbers for text, base64 for binary)
`content_is_binary`	bool	`true` if content is base64-encoded binary data
`file_path`	str	Normalized absolute path that was read
`error`	str	Error message (only present on failure)

Behavior

Text files are returned with 1-indexed line numbers:

First line of file
Second line of file
Third line of file

Binary files (images, PDFs, executables) are automatically detected and returned as base64-encoded strings. The node detects binary files by:

Known extensions: .png, .jpg, .pdf, .zip, .mp3, .exe, .woff, etc.
Encoding failures: Files that fail UTF-8 decoding fall back to binary mode

Path handling: Expands ~ to home directory and converts to absolute path.

write-file

Writes content to a file, creating parent directories as needed.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`file_path`	str	Yes	-	Path where file should be written
`content`	str	Yes	-	Content to write (text, JSON, or base64 for binary)
`encoding`	str	No	`utf-8`	Text encoding
`append`	bool	No	`false`	Append to file instead of overwriting
`content_is_binary`	bool	No	`false`	Set to `true` if content is base64-encoded binary

Output

Key	Type	Description
`written`	str	Success message with file path
`error`	str	Error message (only present on failure)

Behavior

Atomic writes: Regular writes use a temp file + rename pattern to prevent partial writes. Append mode writes directly. Auto-serialization: Dict and list content is automatically serialized to pretty-printed JSON. Directory creation: Parent directories are created automatically if they don’t exist. Disk space check: Verifies sufficient disk space (2x content size) before writing.

copy-file

Copies a file to a new location, preserving metadata.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`source_path`	str	Yes	-	Source file path
`dest_path`	str	Yes	-	Destination file path
`overwrite`	bool	No	`false`	Overwrite if destination exists

Output

Key	Type	Description
`copied`	str	Success message with paths
`error`	str	Error message (only present on failure)

Behavior

Preserves file metadata (timestamps, permissions) using shutil.copy2()
Creates parent directories for destination automatically
Checks disk space (1.5x file size) before copying
Fails if destination exists and overwrite is false

move-file

Moves a file to a new location.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`source_path`	str	Yes	-	Source file path
`dest_path`	str	Yes	-	Destination file path
`overwrite`	bool	No	`false`	Overwrite if destination exists

Output

Key	Type	Description
`moved`	str	Success message with paths
`warning`	str	Warning if source deletion failed after copy (partial success)
`error`	str	Error message (only present on failure)

Behavior

Same filesystem: Uses atomic rename
Cross-device: Falls back to copy + delete, preserving metadata
Creates parent directories for destination automatically
Handles partial success (copy succeeds, delete fails) with warning

delete-file

Deletes a file with required confirmation.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`file_path`	str	Yes	-	Path to the file to delete
`confirm_delete`	bool	Yes	-	Must be `true` to confirm deletion

Security exception: The confirm_delete parameter must be set in the shared store (via a previous node or template variable). It cannot be provided directly in node parameters. This prevents accidental deletions from workflow configuration files.

Output

Key	Type	Description
`deleted`	str	Success message (includes note if file didn’t exist)
`error`	str	Error message (only present on failure)

Behavior

Idempotent: Returns success if file already doesn’t exist
Safety: Requires explicit confirmation via shared store
Files only: Cannot delete directories (use shell node for rm -r)

Common patterns

Chaining file operations

### read

Read the input file.

- type: read-file
- file_path: input.txt

### process

Summarize the file contents using an LLM.

- type: llm
- prompt: Summarize: ${read.content}

### write

Write the summary to a file.

- type: write-file
- file_path: summary.txt
- content: ${process.response}

Working with binary files

### read_image

Read a binary image file.

- type: read-file
- file_path: photo.png

### copy_image

Write the image to a backup location.

- type: write-file
- file_path: backup/photo.png
- content: ${read_image.content}
- content_is_binary: ${read_image.content_is_binary}

Error handling

All file nodes return an error action on failure. Common errors:

Error	Cause
`FileNotFoundError`	File or directory doesn’t exist
`PermissionError`	Insufficient permissions
`IsADirectoryError`	Expected file, got directory
`OSError`	Disk full, filesystem issues

CLI commands

Nodes

Configuration

Experimental

File operations

read-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

write-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

copy-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

move-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

delete-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

Common patterns

Chaining file operations

Working with binary files

Error handling

​read-file

​Parameters

​Output

​Behavior

​write-file

​Parameters

​Output

​Behavior

​copy-file

​Parameters

​Output

​Behavior

​move-file

​Parameters

​Output

​Behavior

​delete-file

​Parameters

​Output

​Behavior

​Common patterns

​Chaining file operations

​Working with binary files

​Error handling

read-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

write-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

copy-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

move-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

delete-file

Parameters

Output

Behavior

Common patterns

Chaining file operations

Working with binary files

Error handling