Files on disk

The folder layout the app reads and writes, the two studio.json files, how decks are detected, and what is skipped.

Everything Lecture Studio knows is in the library folder as plain files. Any Marp toolchain, any editor and any sync tool can work on the same folder.

Layout#

Lecture Studio/                  the library
  studio.json                    presenter profile and hidden folders
  TEACHING_STYLE.md              optional, a longer teaching style
  sources/                       shared sources, searched everywhere
  cs101-fall26/                  a course
    studio.json                  code, title, term, kind, unit prefix, …
    syllabus.md
    AGENTS.md                    course context for the assistant
    CLAUDE.md                    contains "@AGENTS.md"
    sources/                     course sources
    week1/
      week1-slides.md            the deck
      week1-instructor-guide.md  optional
      assets/                    images the deck uses
      sources/                   unit sources
    week2/
    …
  ai-in-science/                 a talk
    ai-in-science.md             the single deck
    assets/
    sources/
    studio.json                  kind: talk

The two studio.json files#

The root file is the presenter profile: name, email, affiliation, unit, contact, language, style, unitLabel and exclude.

Each course or talk folder has its own with these keys:

Key	Meaning
`title`, `code`	Shown on the card and in the deck header.
`term`	Free text, usually `Fall 2026`.
`kind`	`course` or `talk`. A folder without a file counts as a course.
`unitPrefix`	The unit word for new units: `week`, `session`, `module`, `lecture`, `day` or `part`.
`language`	The language the assistant writes in for this course.
`archived`	`true` moves the course to the Archived group.
`derivedFrom`, `startDate`	Set by New term from this course…; they link terms and date the units.

Both files are written pretty-printed with sorted keys, and empty fields are dropped. Editing them by hand is fine; the app picks the change up through the folder watcher.

What counts as what#

Course: a top-level folder whose studio.json says course, or has no studio.json. Its units are subfolders whose names are a word followed by a number: week3, session-2, day10. The separator is kept consistent with the existing units.
Talk: a top-level folder whose studio.json says talk. One deck, no numbered units.
Deck: any .md file whose front matter contains marp: true. The deck title is the footer: value when there is one, otherwise the first # heading.
Document: any other Markdown or text file. Its title is the first # heading.
Unit word: unitPrefix from the course's file, else the most common prefix among the existing folders, else week.

Symlinked courses#

A course can live outside the library. Choose… in the New course or Edit course dialog picks any folder; the library then holds a symbolic link under the course's folder name. The app reads and writes through the link.

What the scan skips#

The file list ignores node_modules, assets, sources, sources-private, site-mirror, input_data, venv, .venv, __pycache__, dist, build, solutions-private, any folder starting with a dot, and any top-level folder named in the profile's exclude list. sources/ folders are counted but their contents are shown in the sources dialog, not in the file picker. *.pyc, package-lock.json and studio.json are never listed. The scan goes four levels deep.

Themes and styles#

The app ships two Marp themes, ytu-lecture and ytu-talk, and uses Marp's default theme for a deck that names none. New decks do not depend on a shipped theme: they carry an inline style: block in the front matter with the sizes the scaffolds use, so they render the same in any Marp tool. See Marp decks.

Where the app keeps its own data#

Data	Location
Library path, panel layout, sort order, last place, project id, subject	The app's preferences
Oberik project key	The macOS Keychain (a source build uses a file under Application Support)
Chat history	`~/Library/Application Support/LectureStudio/chats/<library>-<hash>/`

Nothing about a library is stored anywhere else; moving the folder and opening it again is enough, except that the chat history is keyed by the folder's path.