How a watch folder behaves
Choose a local folder and a workspace folder in the desktop app. From then on, new and changed files upload on their own. A file is sent only after it has stopped changing for a set number of seconds, so a frame the renderer is still writing never ships. New files are grouped into transfers rather than one session per frame, which keeps thousands of small frames efficient.
State is kept locally. Quit the desktop app, reboot the machine or lose the network, and once the app is open and signed in again the watch folder sends what had not finished, without re-uploading the whole tree. Transfers run from the menu bar or system tray with the window closed; pause, resume and cancel per transfer with speed, ETA and files done.
Same engine, full speed
Watch-folder uploads use the accelerated transfer engine built into the desktop app: UDP-based acceleration that holds your line rate over any distance, parallel sessions sized to your plan, unfinished files sent again on the next scan, and a checksum recorded for every file on arrival. There is no second client to install or keep updated; the engine ships inside one download for macOS (universal, notarised), Windows or Linux (AppImage), with automatic updates.
Both directions, on desktops and servers
A download watch folder runs the other way: point the app at a workspace folder and a local folder, and anything a client uploads through a portal, or a colleague drops in, lands on your NAS or server within a minute, sub-folders intact; nothing is ever deleted locally. On a render node, a lab instrument PC or a backup box without a display, the headless Linux agent runs the same watch folders up and down under systemd, controlled from the web app, and the boita CLI uploads, downloads and shares from scripts.
A watch folder can send only between chosen hours, and the workspace can cap transfers during office hours, enforced by the transfer server rather than the app, so an overnight copy leaves the day’s connection alone. Deliver-from-Resolve and Deliver-from-Avid presets set the right file types and a longer stability wait for renders that grow. A preset also sets which file types are sent and which never leave (partial renders, project files, indexes); name patterns are coming. Watch folders are one-way per folder, not a two-way sync.
- Stability wait: files sent once they stop changing
- Restart-safe local state; batched sends
- Background queue in the menu bar and tray
- Download watch folders; headless Linux agent and CLI
- Allowed hours and bandwidth windows enforced by the server; patterns coming
Which plan
The desktop app, the Linux agent and the CLI are included from the Pro plan, with two watch folders. Scale has unlimited watch folders and fifty parallel sessions; Enterprise is custom.