Limitations of File System API for 'leo-web' ?

[Viktor Ransmayr]

Hello Félix,

I used the latest version of 'leo-web' & started to play with it.

Everything works more or less fine, as long as I use for example '~/project/leo-web' as a / the workspace.

Then I tried 'Leo-Web > Settings > Open LeoSettings', which AFAIU opens a modified version of "myLeoSettings.leo" as an "untitled" outline in a new app tab.

At this point in time I expected that I can / should save it to '~/.leo' ...

So I tried to choose '~'  as a new workspace.

This was however refused with the following msg box:

"""

Can't open this folder

http://localhost:8080 can't open this folder because it contains system files

<Cancel> <Choose a different folder>

"""

How are you supposed to work around this limitation - or - asked differently: How are you supposed to ~configure~ 'leo-app' ?

With kind regards,

Viktor

[Félix]

Hi Viktor, 

Thanks for bringing that up, it was next on my list! :)

1 - About browser file-system API: For security reasons, browsers prevent some system folders to be set as 'workspace' for read-write file access, such as the root folder of your system, main OS folder like C:\Windows\, home, etc... 

2 - Leo-Web, (and LeoJS when running in VSCode for the web to edit a github repository 'workspace' directly in the browser), allows for myLeoSettings.leo to be present, but at the root of the workspace itself instead of home or home/.leo. 

So in conclusion, to change and save your prefered configurations settings, the 'Open LeoSettings' command is the way to go, as you have already tried: and then altering it, and saving it as myLeoSettings.leo at the root of your workspace (that you've chosen when starting up Leo-Web) will make those settings be applied when re-opening again later, or immediately, with the reload-settings command. 

Note: In Leo-Web, (and in LeoJS) the settings are applied when opening a file, or when doing reload-settings, in the following order: the main (hidden) leoSettings.leo, myLeoSettings.leo and finally @setting node if present in the file.

Thanks again Viktor for trying it out and helping me finding the last details to fix and polish!!

 I've modified the content of the 'about' nodes in leoSettings to state where to save myLeoSettings.leo  :)

Félix

(I think I'll add suppport for both .leo and .leojs extensions for those settings files!)

[Viktor Ransmayr]

Hello Félix,

Félix schrieb am Dienstag, 17. März 2026 um 06:06:31 UTC+1:

...

1 - About browser file-system API: For security reasons, browsers prevent some system folders to be set as 'workspace' for read-write file access, such as the root folder of your system, main OS folder like C:\Windows\, home, etc... 

2 - Leo-Web, (and LeoJS when running in VSCode for the web to edit a github repository 'workspace' directly in the browser), allows for myLeoSettings.leo to be present, but at the root of the workspace itself instead of home or home/.leo. 

So in conclusion, to change and save your prefered configurations settings, the 'Open LeoSettings' command is the way to go, as you have already tried: and then altering it, and saving it as myLeoSettings.leo at the root of your workspace (that you've chosen when starting up Leo-Web) will make those settings be applied when re-opening again later, or immediately, with the reload-settings command. 

Thanks for this explanation & feedback - I have changed my Debian & Fedora distrobox to save 'myLeoSettings.leo' at the root of the workspace.

Trying to change the settings revealed another issue, which I'll describe in a separate issue.

With kind regards,

Viktor