---
title: "Explorer"
description: "Organize your devices, tags, models, device sets, and local values into a browsable folder hierarchy"
source_url: https://ai-ops.com/docs/explorer/introduction
---

# Explorer

The Site Explorer is a slide-out panel for organizing everything on your instance into a folder hierarchy you build yourself. Group your devices, tags, models, device sets, and local values into folders that mirror your plant: site, building, area, line, and equipment. Once organized, you can browse the tree, check live values, and jump to any entity's full page without leaving the panel.

Explorer is for organizing and navigating, not analysis. The detail panel shows a live sparkline for the selected tag, but Explorer does not replay historical trends or export data. To chart values over time, use [Trends](https://ai-ops.com/docs/trends/introduction.md).

## Opening the Explorer

Open the Explorer two ways:

- Click **Explorer** at the top of the left navigation.
- Press `Cmd+E` (macOS) or `Ctrl+E` (Windows and Linux) from anywhere in the app.

The panel slides in from the left. Your expanded folders and last selection are remembered between sessions, so it reopens where you left off.

## Layout

The panel is split into two sides:

| Side | Shows |
|------|-------|
| **Left** | The folder tree, a search box, and the add menu |
| **Right** | The detail panel for whatever is selected, or the item browser when you are adding entities |

## Creating and nesting folders

Use the add menu (the **+** button next to the search box) to build your hierarchy:

- **New Folder** creates a top-level folder when no folder is selected.
- With a folder selected, the same option becomes **New Sub-folder** and nests the new folder inside it.

Each folder has a name, an optional description, and an icon. Pick an icon that matches the level it represents:

| Icon | Typical use |
|------|-------------|
| Folder | Generic grouping |
| Site | A physical site or plant |
| Building | A building within a site |
| Area | An area or zone |
| Line | A production line |
| Equipment | A single machine or asset |

To rearrange folders, drag one folder onto another to nest it, or drag it to the **Drop here to move to root** zone at the bottom of the tree to un-nest it.

## Adding entities to folders

Folders group your existing devices, tags, models, device sets, and local values. Adding an entity to a folder is purely organizational: it does not move, copy, or change the entity itself.

There are two ways to add entities:

1. **Add Items mode.** Open the add menu and choose **Add Items**. The right side becomes a searchable browser. Filter by entity type, find what you need, choose **Add to Folder**, and pick the destination folder in the dialog.
2. **Drag and drop.** Drag an entity from one folder onto another folder in the tree to move it.

An entity can live in one folder at a time. Adding it to a new folder moves it there.

## Selecting and bulk actions

Click any item to select it. To act on several at once:

- **Shift-click** to select a range within a group.
- **Cmd/Ctrl-click** to toggle individual items in and out of the selection.

When more than one item is selected, a bulk actions bar appears at the bottom of the tree:

| Action | Effect |
|--------|--------|
| **Move** | Move all selected items into a folder you pick |
| **Remove** | Take the selected items out of their folders (back to unassigned) |

You can also drag a selection onto the trash zone that appears over the detail panel while dragging to remove those items from their folders.

> [!WARNING] Removing is not deleting
> Removing an item from a folder, or deleting a folder, never deletes the underlying entity. When you delete a folder, its sub-folders move up to the parent and its items become unassigned. Devices, tags, and models are only deleted from their own pages.

## The detail panel

Selecting a single entity opens its detail panel on the right. For a tag, that includes the live current value, a sparkline, its status, range, device, and protocol details, all updating in real time. The panel also gives you quick controls:

- **Enable / disable** the entity in place.
- **Open** to jump to the entity's full page (for example, the tag or device detail view).
- The entity's action menu for the same operations available on its full page.

## Search

The search box at the top of the tree filters folders by name as you type. In **Add Items** mode, the browser has its own search that filters the available devices, tags, models, device sets, and local values by name.

## What's Next

- [Getting Started](https://ai-ops.com/docs/getting-started/introduction.md) for a high-level tour of the Koios platform.
- [Trends](https://ai-ops.com/docs/trends/introduction.md) for charting live and historical tag values over time.