--- title: "How do I read email and PDFs after indexing a folder?" canonical: "https://xerj.org/answers/read-indexed-email-and-pdf-folder" updated: "2026-09-20" source: "content/answers/read-indexed-email-and-pdf-folder.md" --- # I indexed a folder of email and PDFs. How do I actually read what it found? **TL;DR** — Run `xerj brain `, then open the console it prints. The Corpus page lists what was indexed, and the Reader opens any record: an email with its headers, body and attachments, or one PDF page, beside the files it links to. The Reader shows extracted text only. It renders no email HTML and no PDF pages. ## Agent prompt ```text Act as a coding agent. Read https://xerj.org/llms.txt, run `xerj brain ./casefile --no-open` on a folder of .eml and .pdf files, search the index it reports for a word from one email subject, then give the person the console link `/_xerj-console/#/reader?index=INDEX&id=ID` for the best hit instead of pasting the whole document into the chat. ``` ## Commands ### Command 1 Note: Index the folder, detect the links between files, and print the console URL and the one-time passkey setup link. ```sh xerj brain ./casefile --no-open ``` ### Command 2 Note: Find an email by a word in its subject; the _id of a hit is what the Reader link takes, and ax_file is what its attachments share. ```sh curl -s -XPOST http://localhost:9200/ax-docs/_search -H "Authorization: ApiKey $XERJ_API_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":{"bool":{"filter":[{"wildcard":{"email_subject":{"value":"*invoice*","case_insensitive":true}}}],"must_not":[{"exists":{"field":"attachment_name"}}]}},"_source":["email_subject","email_from","email_date","ax_file"],"size":5}' ``` ### Command 3 Note: List the attachment records of one email: every record that came out of one .eml file shares its ax_file. ```sh curl -s -XPOST http://localhost:9200/ax-docs/_search -H "Authorization: ApiKey $XERJ_API_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":{"bool":{"filter":[{"term":{"ax_file":"AX_FILE_OF_THE_EMAIL"}},{"exists":{"field":"attachment_name"}}]}},"_source":["attachment_name","page","ax_locator"],"size":50}' ``` ## Index the folder, then open the console `xerj brain ` starts a local node if none is running, indexes every readable file, detects the links between files, and prints a console URL. A first run also prints a one-time passkey setup link. The node it starts has auth on, and its admin key is in `/admin.key`. ```sh xerj brain ./casefile --no-open ``` In a recorded run, a folder of 10 files became 81 records in one dataset, `ax-docs`, and the brain `casefile` received 33 links. The folder held 6 `.eml` messages, two of them with a PDF attached, 2 more PDFs and 2 Markdown notes. The run is scripted in `docs/usecases/console-reader/` in the repository. ## Corpus lists what was indexed The console's landing page is Corpus. It reads the `autoindex-catalog` index and shows one card per dataset: record, file and byte counts, the formats, the date range, the fields with their types, and the sample queries the catalog entry carries. A sample query opens the Reader with the sample's text in the search box and already run, over the Reader's search fields and the field the sample was written for. A card describes the last `xerj brain` or `xerj autoindex` run over that dataset. The record count is the index total. The file count, the formats and the field types are that run's own, and the card labels them `last run`. An empty node shows one command, `xerj brain `, and no sample data. If the catalog cannot be read, the page shows the error and nothing in its place. ## The Reader opens one record The route is `/_xerj-console/#/reader?index=&id=`. Every hit in the console's Discover page links there, and an agent can hand a person that link instead of pasting a document into a chat. Find the id with an ordinary search: ```sh curl -s -XPOST 'http://localhost:9200/ax-docs/_search' \ -H "Authorization: ApiKey $XERJ_API_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' \ -d '{"query":{"bool":{"filter":[{"wildcard":{"email_subject":{"value":"*invoice*","case_insensitive":true}}}],"must_not":[{"exists":{"field":"attachment_name"}}]}},"_source":["email_subject","email_from","email_date","ax_file"],"size":5}' ``` The query is a `wildcard` and not a `match` for a reason. `xerj autoindex` usually types `email_subject` as `keyword`, because every attachment page record copies its email's subject and the field then holds few distinct values. On a `keyword` field a `match` finds only the whole subject. In a recorded check, `match` on `email_subject` for `Lunch` returned 0 hits while the subject `Lunch on Friday?` was indexed, and the `wildcard` for `*lunch*` returned 1. The `must_not` keeps the attachment records out, because each one carries a copy of the subject. The Reader's own search box does the same. The Reader renders a record by its shape: | Record | What the Reader shows | |---|---| | email | From, To, Cc, Date and Message-ID, the body text, and the attachment list | | attachment | name, type and size, the extracted text of that page, and a link back to the email | | PDF page | the title, the page number, and that page's text | | file | the path and format, and every record that came out of that file | ## How one email is stored `xerj autoindex` writes one record for the file, one for the message, and one for each page section of each attachment. All of them share `ax_file`, and the Reader joins an email to its attachments on it. The attachment records also copy `email_message_id`, stored without the angle brackets, but only when the message has a `Message-ID` header, and two files can carry the same id. The `ax_locator` field numbers the attachments: `att0-p3-s0` is page 3 of the first attachment. In the recorded run the shared index held 6 emails and 43 attachment records. ```sh curl -s -XPOST 'http://localhost:9200/ax-docs/_search' \ -H "Authorization: ApiKey $XERJ_API_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' \ -d '{"query":{"bool":{"filter":[{"term":{"ax_file":"AX_FILE_OF_THE_EMAIL"}},{"exists":{"field":"attachment_name"}}]}},"_source":["attachment_name","page","ax_locator"],"size":50}' ``` Replace `AX_FILE_OF_THE_EMAIL` with the `ax_file` value of the email hit. A long PDF becomes many records. If one email carries more than 50, raise `size` or add `from` to read the next 50. ## The linked records come from the brain Under the record, the Reader shows its one-hop neighbours from `GET /_graph/{brain}/ego`, grouped by link type. The same-folder, Markdown-link and path-citation detectors link file records, not the records inside a file. So the Reader also reads the links of the record's file and marks those `FILE`. In the recorded run the hostile email had 2 linked records, and both were same-folder links of its file. The detectors are structural. No detector reads meaning from the text. ## It shows text on purpose An email subject, an attachment name and a body are text that a stranger wrote. The Reader builds its page from text nodes and never from markup, renders no email HTML, and links no URL found in a document. The console page is served with a Content-Security-Policy that allows scripts and connections from its own origin only. The recorded run includes one hostile message: a `