परिचय
Core concepts
Spaces, assets, versions, tags, the index, sync and local AI.
A handful of ideas explain everything in Stratum. Once these click, the rest of the app is obvious.
Space
A space is a folder on your disk that Stratum manages. Everything else — assets, versions, tags — lives inside a space. Stratum adds a hidden .git folder to the space so it can version files, but the folder stays a normal folder.
A space can be local only, or paired with a shared remote (a studio hub) on a NAS or Git server so a team can sync it.
Asset
An asset is one file inside a space. Stratum classifies every asset into a kind so the library can filter and preview it:
| Kind | Examples | Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Image | png, jpg, tif, exr, psd | Thumbnail |
| Vector | svg | Rendered thumbnail |
| Source file | psd, ai, blend, ma, mb, c4d | Extracted preview where possible |
| 3D model | fbx, obj, glb, gltf, usd | Icon + metadata |
| Audio | wav, mp3, ogg, flac | Waveform icon |
| Other | anything else | Generic icon |
Version
Every time an asset changes, Stratum records a new version — backed by a Git commit. Versions are never overwritten. You can open any asset, compare the current file against an older version side by side, and restore an older version.
Tag
A tag is a label you attach to an asset to make it easier to find — character, armor, level-03. Tags can be added by hand or suggested by local AI. Tags are stored in a single .stratum-tags.json file at the root of the space, so they travel with the space and reach teammates when it syncs.
Index & thumbnails
To make the library fast, Stratum keeps a private index and thumbnail cache outside your space, in your operating system's app-data folder. The index is a small SQLite database; thumbnails are cached image files. They are disposable — Stratum rebuilds them from your assets if they are ever missing.
Sync & studio hub
A studio hub is a bare Git repository on a NAS or Git server that several spaces point at. When connected, Stratum syncs in the background: it pulls teammates' changes and pushes yours. If two people changed the same file, Stratum keeps both — your version stays and the teammate's is saved next to it — so nothing is ever lost to a merge.
Local AI
If Ollama is installed, Stratum can use two models entirely on your machine:
| Model | Purpose |
|---|---|
| llava:7b | Looks at image assets and suggests descriptive tags |
| nomic-embed-text | Turns assets into embeddings so search can work by meaning |
The AI is optional and offline. Without it, Stratum still versions, browses and searches (by file name and tags).