PinoDrive — See what's eating your disk.

🚀 Getting started

1. 1
   Install from the Chrome Web Store. Click "Add to Chrome" on the PinoDrive listing. The extension opens as a full browser tab when you click its icon.
2. 2
   Click the PinoDrive icon in your Chrome toolbar. It opens in a new tab — not a small popup.
3. 3
   Complete the welcome walkthrough. It explains the two scan modes (browser vs agent) and takes about 60 seconds.
4. 4
   Click "Pick a folder to scan." Your browser's folder picker opens. Select any folder on your machine to run your first scan.

⚡ Browser mode vs agent mode

PinoDrive has two scan modes. You can use browser mode immediately with no setup. Agent mode unlocks native actions.

📁 Running your first scan

Browser mode (no setup)

1. 1
   Click Pick folder in the header bar, or the big "Pick a folder to scan" button on the empty state.
2. 2
   Your OS folder picker opens. Navigate to the folder you want to analyse (e.g. Downloads, Documents, or a project folder).
3. 3
   Click Open / Select Folder. Chrome will ask for permission to read that folder — click Allow.
4. 4
   The sunburst and overview cards appear as the scan completes. Large folders may take 5–30 seconds depending on the number of files.

Agent mode

1. 1
   Install and start the local agent (see section below).
2. 2
   Once the agent is running, the header shows "Agent online".
3. 3
   Pre-configured sources appear in the source bar at the top: Home, Downloads, Desktop, etc. Click one to start scanning immediately.
4. 4
   Scan progress streams in real time via WebSocket — you see the item count update live.

Rescanning

After a scan, the Rescan button in the header re-runs the same source with fresh data. Use this after deleting files to see the updated totals.

🌐 Reading the sunburst chart

The sunburst is a radial visualisation where each ring represents a level of the folder hierarchy. The root folder is the centre; subfolders radiate outward. The arc width of each segment is proportional to that item's disk usage.

Interacting with the sunburst

• Hover any segment to see the folder or file name and exact size in a tooltip.
• Click a segment to drill down — it becomes the new centre and you see its contents.
• Click the centre circle (or press Backspace / click the back arrow) to navigate up one level.
• Right-click any segment to open the context menu: Add to bin, Open in Finder, Reveal in Finder, Copy path, Compress.
• Drag a segment to the bin collector drop zone at the bottom of the screen.

Colour coding

Each top-level folder gets a distinct colour that carries through to its children. The legend in the sidebar (tree view panel) maps colours to folder names. The "Others" grey segment groups everything that doesn't fit in the top 5.

🌲 Tree view

Switch to the tree view using the Sunburst / Tree toggle above the chart. Tree view shows a flat, sortable list of folders and files with their sizes and last-access dates.

Using the tree view

• Click a folder row to expand it and see its children.
• Click a folder name (not the expand arrow) to drill down into it — it becomes the new root for both tree and sunburst.
• Use the Breadcrumb bar above the chart to navigate back up.
• Right-click any row for the context menu.
• Drag a row to the bin collector.

🗑️ Bin collector

The bin collector is a staging area at the bottom of the screen. You add items to review before deleting anything — nothing is moved or deleted until you explicitly confirm.

Adding items to the bin

• Click the bin icon (folder-in arrow) on any overview card.
• Right-click a segment or tree row → Add to bin.
• Drag a segment or row onto the bin drop zone.

Reviewing the queue

The bin shows total queued size and a list of all queued items. Click the × next to any item to remove it from the queue before acting.

Actions on the queue

• Send to Trash (agent mode only) — moves all queued items to the system Trash. They remain recoverable from Trash until you empty it. PinoDrive does not empty the Trash.
• Clear queue — removes all items from the bin without deleting anything on disk.

📊 Insights & overview cards

Overview cards (top of the main panel)

After a scan, up to 6 overview cards show the top 5 folders plus an "Others" bucket. Each card shows:

• Folder name and total size
• A proportional bar showing what percentage of the current view this folder takes
• Three action buttons: Add to bin, Compress (agent only), Open in Finder (agent only)

The first (widest) card spans two columns — it's always the largest folder at the current level.

Insight cards (below overview)

• Largest file — the single file consuming the most space in the entire scan tree.
• Oldest untouched item — the file or folder with the oldest last-access date. Good candidates for archiving.
• Queued recovery — total size and count of items currently in the bin collector.
• Last saved snapshot — the source label and total size from the most recent saved scan summary.

Sidebar panels

The sidebar on the right has three tabs:

• Suggestions — PinoDrive automatically identifies likely junk: node_modules, .DS_Store, __pycache__, log files, and large duplicated archive folders.
• Scan history — a summary of recent scans: source, total size, largest file, oldest item.
• Legend — colour mapping for the current sunburst view.

🤖 Installing the local agent

The local agent is an optional small program that runs on your machine and gives PinoDrive native filesystem capabilities. It listens on 127.0.0.1:7843 — only on your own machine, never exposed to the network.

What the agent unlocks

• Send items directly to the system Trash
• Reveal files in Finder / Windows Explorer
• Open files with their default application
• Compress folders to zip archives
• Scan pre-configured sources (Home, Downloads, Desktop) without picking a folder
• Real-time streaming scan progress

Installation steps (macOS)

Installation steps (Windows)

Stopping the agent

Press Ctrl+C in the terminal window, or close it. PinoDrive reverts to Browser mode automatically. The header badge changes back to amber.

📜 Scan history & savings log

PinoDrive automatically saves a summary after each scan and a log entry each time you send items to the Trash. These are visible in the sidebar and the home hero cards.

Scan summaries

Each saved summary records: source label, total size scanned, name and size of the largest file found, name and age of the oldest item. Up to 6 summaries are kept. They are stored in chrome.storage.local and persist between sessions.

Savings log

Each cleanup session records: number of bytes queued, number of items, source label, and date. The cumulative total appears on the home screen hero card as "Past space identified".

Clearing history

Scan history clears automatically when you exceed 6 entries (oldest entry drops off). You can manually clear it in Settings → Data → Clear scan history.

🔒 Privacy & your data

PinoDrive reads files on your machine only. It does not upload file names, paths, or sizes to any external server.

• Full directory trees — held in browser memory during the scan session only. Discarded when you close the tab.
• Scan summaries — stored in chrome.storage.local. Contains file names of your largest file and oldest item.
• Savings history — bytes freed and item count only. No file names.
• Agent communication — happens over localhost only (127.0.0.1:7843). No data crosses a network boundary.
• Uninstalling PinoDrive removes all locally stored data.

Read the full privacy policy →