Files

desk follows the XDG folders. Below, ~/.local/share is $XDG_DATA_HOME, ~/.config is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, ~/.local/state is $XDG_STATE_HOME and ~/.cache is $XDG_CACHE_HOME, when those are set.

Tip

To try something without touching your real board, point XDG_DATA_HOME and DESK_ROOT at scratch folders. Or run desk demo, which puts all of the below in a temporary folder.

The board: ~/.local/share/desk/

Path	What’s in it
board.json	The board: columns, cards, their links and session stats, the archive. Saved as you go, atomically (written to board.json.tmp, then renamed). A missing file starts a fresh board.
chats/<card>.jsonl	Each card’s conversation, one message per line.
images/	Images you pasted into a card or a message, referenced as .
snoozed.json	Snoozed alerts and until when.
crash.log	If desk crashes, the trace goes here. desk runs detached, with no terminal to print it on.

Settings: ~/.config/desk/

Path	What’s in it
settings.toml	desk’s own settings: the search folders ([[folder]] with path, depth, only_toml, root) and the languages (card_lang, chat_lang). Edit them in Settings → General.
infra-layout.json	The infra workspace’s look: its theme, whether its sidebar and Claude panel show, and the Claude panel’s width.

Organizations: $DESK_ROOT (~/Work)

desk keeps what it has in an organization’s folder inside that folder’s .desk/. Only Claude Code’s own files (.claude/, CLAUDE.md) stay where Claude Code reads them.

Note

Older versions of desk kept desk.toml and ssh_config in the organization’s folder itself. desk moves them into .desk/ by itself the first time it reads them (a relative link is moved as one that still points at its file). If both are there, the one in .desk/ is used and the old one is left alone. Relative paths inside them still start from the organization’s folder, so nothing in them needs changing.

Path	What’s in it
<Org>/.desk/desk.toml	The organization’s accounts and settings. See desk.toml. When Settings saves it, the file is made readable by you only (it may hold a token), and comments in it are not kept.
<Org>/.desk/ssh_config	The organization’s servers file (or the one [servers] file names). See The servers file.
<Org>/.desk/servers-dynamic.conf	What a #@ hosts-cmd printed last (servers-dynamic-<group>.conf for one in a group).
<Org>/.desk/infra/	The infra Claude’s working folder, made when the organization has a servers file (an older <Org>/Infra-Claude/ moves here). Put a CLAUDE.md here for it to read.
<Org>/.desk/infra/runbooks/	Runbooks: Markdown with sh blocks and {{parameters}}. The infra Claude saves new ones here too.
<Org>/.claude/agents/	The Claude Code agents cards can run as (or the folder agents names in desk.toml).

Claude profiles: ~/Secure/Claudes/

Path	What’s in it
~/Secure/Claudes/<Org>/	An organization’s own Claude Code profile. Its sessions run with it in place of ~/.claude, through bwrap.
~/Secure/Claudes/claude-<org>.json	That profile’s ~/.claude.json (the organization’s name in lower case). Made if missing.

Infra state: ~/.local/state/desk/infra/

<org> is the organization folder’s name.

Path	What’s in it
session.json	The open tabs and panes, each tab’s recent chat and Claude session, and port forwards: what the workspace reopens.
pins	Pinned servers, one per line.
audit/<org>/<date>.jsonl	The audit log: every command that ran and every approval, who did it (you or Claude), the exit code, time and the output’s end.
recordings/<org>/<time>-<server>.cast	Recordings of the panes, as asciicasts (asciinema play <file>). record = false in desk.toml turns them off.
notes/<org>/<server>.md	The infra Claude’s notes about each server.
reports/<org>-<time>.md	Incident reports.
always/<org>.json	The commands you answered always to. Edit it to take one back.
health/<org>.last	When the daily health check ([schedule] health) last ran.

Cache: ~/.cache/desk/

Path	What’s in it
files/<host>/	Files opened from a server in the files split.
edit/<host>/…	Files opened from a server for editing.

Sockets: $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/desk/

Made by a running desk, readable by you only. Without XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, they go in the system’s temp folder.

Path	What it’s for
cards-<pid>.sock	Card sessions’ desk tools (alerts, tickets, link, ci).
infra-<pid>-<tab>.sock	One per infra tab: its Claude’s tools.
askpass-<pid>.sock	ssh asking desk for a password.
peer/<pid>.sock	desk peer. It talks to the newest one.
ssh-%C	ssh’s shared connections (ControlMaster), kept 60 s after the last pane closes.

Environment variables

Variable	What it does
DESK_ROOT	The default search folder for organizations (~/Work).
XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME, XDG_RUNTIME_DIR	Move the folders above.
ASBRU_CFG	Where Ásbrú’s asbru.yml is, for the import.
SHELL	Handed to everything desk runs. If it names a shell that isn’t there, desk fixes it at start.
DESK_INFRA_DEBUG	A file to append the infra Claude’s raw stream to, for debugging.