navig-cabinet

Your documents in one plugin: an encrypted cabinet for important files (ID and passport scans, medical records, contracts, photos, recordings — any type, any size; local-OCR search, expiry reminders, portable backups) plus navig paperwork, which files business paperwork (invoices, quotes, contracts, tax) into a space.

A navig extension — installing it pulls in navig and adds the commands below · v0.2.0 · not on PyPI yet (install from source below)

Install

pip install "git+https://github.com/navig-run/plugins#subdirectory=navig-cabinet"
navig cabinet --help

It is not a separate program: it needs navig, and installing it installs navig for you.

Commands

Command	What it does
navig cabinet add	Encrypt files into the cabinet (originals are kept unless --move).
navig cabinet backup	Write one encrypted backup file that restores on any computer, with its own passphrase.
navig cabinet close	Remove every decrypted copy left by open right now.
navig cabinet dates	Find expiry dates inside documents that have none — passports, ID cards, policies.
navig cabinet edit	Change an item's title, category, tags, expiry, issuer or notes.
navig cabinet expiring	Documents that have expired or expire soon — passports, ID cards, insurance.
navig cabinet export	Write decrypted copies with their original names (verified; never overwrites).
navig cabinet import-paperwork	Encrypt the ID and medical documents a navig paperwork scan set aside (originals stay put).
navig cabinet list	Everything in the cabinet.
navig cabinet open	Open an item in its usual app (a temporary decrypted copy).
navig cabinet passphrase clear	Go back to the machine key (no passphrase).
navig cabinet passphrase set	Lock the cabinet with a passphrase (asked for on every command).
navig cabinet remind	Send the expiry reminders that are due now (the daemon also does this daily).
navig cabinet remove	Move an item to the trash (or --purge it for good).
navig cabinet restore	Add everything from a backup that the cabinet does not already hold.
navig cabinet search	Find items by title, tag, or any word inside the document.
navig cabinet show	Details of one item.
navig cabinet status	What is in the cabinet, how it is locked, and what needs attention.
navig cabinet undelete	Bring an item back from the trash.
navig cabinet verify	Decrypt every item and check it against its stored checksum.
navig paperwork apply	Execute the plan: copy, verify by hash, then quarantine the source.
navig paperwork echeances	The deadline radar: what is overdue or due soon, from filed letters and recurrent renewals.
navig paperwork handoff	File the manifest's non-company documents where they belong.
navig paperwork index	Rebuild the document index and the invoice register from disk.
navig paperwork reply	Draft the reply to a filed letter (French, formal) into out/courriers/ — never sent.
navig paperwork review	Show what the plan intends, or just the rows that still need you.
navig paperwork scan	Extract, classify and deduplicate documents into a reviewable plan.
navig paperwork undo	Reverse an apply, restoring every source from the quarantine.

Your documents, in one plugin. Two commands, one install:

• navig cabinet is an encrypted cabinet for your important files: ID card and passport scans, medical records, insurance, contracts, diplomas, and also photos, voice notes and videos. Any file type, any size. You can search by the words inside a document, see what expires soon, and back everything up to one file that restores on any computer.
• navig paperwork files your business paperwork (invoices, quotes, contracts, tax notices) into a space, by reading each document. Those stay ordinary files on purpose, because your accountant and the deadline tracker read them. See PAPERWORK.md.

The two meet where they should. When a paperwork scan finds an ID scan or a medical record among the business papers, navig paperwork handoff --yes encrypts it into the cabinet instead of filing it as a plain file anywhere.

navig cabinet add passport.pdf --expires 2031-05-01     # encrypt + read the text (local OCR)
navig cabinet add ~/Scans/medical/                      # a whole folder
navig cabinet search blood test 2025                    # finds words INSIDE the scans
navig cabinet expiring                                  # passports / cards due within 90 days
navig cabinet open 3fa9                                 # view it in its usual app
navig cabinet export --all --by-category -o ~/Desktop/papers
navig cabinet backup -o D:/backups/cabinet              # one encrypted, portable file

Why not the vault?

navig vault keeps secrets: small values the agent reads constantly (${VAULT:x}). The cabinet keeps files: big and irreplaceable, rarely read. They have different needs:

• Streaming. A 4 GB video is encrypted in 4 MiB chunks and never held in memory.
• Backups. A secret can be re-issued; a scan of a lost passport cannot.
• A lock you choose. See below.

How it is locked

	Machine key (default)	Passphrase
Asks for anything	no	the passphrase, on every command
A copy of the files on another computer	useless	useless without the passphrase
Someone using this computer as you	can open it	cannot
Forgetting	nothing to forget	files are unrecoverable

• Switch with navig cabinet passphrase set / navig cabinet passphrase clear. Only the key is re-wrapped, so switching is instant.
• For scripts, set NAVIG_CABINET_PASSPHRASE.
• The machine key binds to the OS machine id, not the hostname, so renaming the computer is fine.
• A reinstall changes the machine id. Back up.

What is encrypted

Everything that says anything is encrypted: the file, its name, title, category, tags, expiry date, issuer, notes, and all the text read out of it. Encryption is AES-256-GCM, with a random key per item wrapped by the cabinet key.

On disk, without the key, you can see only:

• how many items there are,
• roughly how big each one is,
• when each was added.

Text is read locally only (Tesseract / local Whisper). Nothing is sent to a cloud OCR, and the text is never cached anywhere in plaintext.

• Audio/video: transcribed only with --transcribe.
• OCR for scans: needs pip install navig-cabinet[ocr] plus Tesseract (scoop install tesseract). Without it, scans are still stored; they are just searchable by title and tags only.

navig cabinet open writes a temporary decrypted copy for the viewer app. It is removed 15 minutes later, or at once with navig cabinet close. export writes plain copies on purpose, so delete them when you are done.

In the desktop app

NAVIG OS has a Cabinet app (Apps → Security):

• search by the words inside your documents, filter by category;
• see what expires soon;
• Add files from a file picker;
• Open any item in its usual app.

A passphrase-locked cabinet shows an unlock field, and stays unlocked for 15 idle minutes.

The app talks to the daemon's /api/deck/cabinet/* routes, which answer only this computer. A request that came through the tunnel, Lighthouse or the Telegram Mini App gets a 403, so your document list is never reachable remotely. The routes return metadata only; opening a file decrypts it on this machine, and no file content travels over HTTP.

Expiry reminders

A document gets an expiry date in one of three ways, and navig then reminds you by itself:

• read from the document when you add it: the machine-readable zone of a passport or ID card (check-digit verified, so an OCR misread is rejected), or a labelled "date d'expiration" / "date of expiry" / "valable jusqu'au". A bare date is never taken, since the birth date sits right next to the expiry. navig cabinet show marks such a date "(read from the document)". navig cabinet dates [--apply] does the same for documents already stored;
• --expires 2031-05-01 on add;
• navig cabinet edit <id> --expires … (this also corrects a detected date).

The reminders: 90, 30 and 7 days before, and once when it has expired. Each warning is sent once per document; renewing it (a new date) starts them over. They arrive through your normal notifications (deck bell + Telegram, per Settings → Notifications), once a day after 09:00, while the navig daemon is running.

A reminder names the category and the id, never the title. It says "an identity document expires in 28 days (navig cabinet show 3fa9)", because it may be read on a phone lock screen.

The daemon never needs your passphrase for this. The cabinet keeps a small reminder index next to itself: just id, category and date, locked to this computer. It is rewritten whenever the cabinet changes. In a passphrase-locked cabinet, that index is the one thing readable on this machine without the passphrase.

navig cabinet remind --dry-run                     # what would be sent today
navig cabinet remind                               # send what is due now
navig config set cabinet.reminders.hour 8          # the daily hour (default 9)
navig config set cabinet.reminders.enabled false   # off, and the index is deleted

Backups and getting your files out

navig cabinet backup -o <file> asks for a backup passphrase and writes one .ncab file.

• It restores on any computer with navig cabinet restore <file>.
• Items already present are skipped, so restoring twice is harmless.

The files never depend on navig. A backup is an encrypted ordinary tar holding manifest.json (all metadata) and files/<id>/<original name>. navig_cabinet/recover_backup.py turns it back into that tar with nothing but Python and cryptography:

pip install cryptography
python recover_backup.py cabinet.ncab recovered.tar   # or set NCAB_PASSPHRASE for scripts
tar -xf recovered.tar

Keep a copy of that script next to your backups.

Formats

• Item stream (objects/<id>.bin, also the backup body):
  • Header: NCABSTR1 ‖ u32 chunk_size.
  • Then records: u32 len ‖ nonce(12) ‖ AES-GCM(chunk).
  • AAD per chunk: header ‖ context ‖ u64 index ‖ u8 is_last. This rejects reordering, truncation, splicing and trailing data.
• Backup: NCABBAK1 ‖ u32 len ‖ header JSON (scrypt n,r,p,salt), then an item stream.
  • Key: scrypt(passphrase).
  • Context: "navig-cabinet/backup/" ‖ sha256(header JSON).
• Key file (key.json): the 32-byte cabinet key, AES-GCM-wrapped by scrypt(machine id | passphrase). The KDF parameters are recorded in the file.

With navig paperwork

navig paperwork scan files business paperwork into a space as ordinary files. Your accountant and the deadline tracker need to read those, so they are not encrypted.

The scan also sets aside what is not the business's, in a handoff manifest:

Found	Goes to
ID scans, passports, birth certificates	the cabinet, encrypted (category identity)
prescriptions, test results, medical letters	the cabinet, encrypted (category medical)
benefits and housing letters (CAF, bail, EDF…)	the space that works with them, as files
live credentials (2FA codes, recovery keys)	nowhere: import them with navig vault
someone else's documents	nowhere: never moved

navig paperwork handoff --space company-paperwork --dry-run   # rehearse
navig paperwork handoff --space company-paperwork --yes       # file + encrypt
navig paperwork handoff --space company-paperwork --to cabinet --yes   # only the encrypted half

Each file must still match the checksum the scan recorded; one that changed since is reported, not stored. Documents going into the cabinet keep their originals in place — check them with navig cabinet list --tag paperwork, then delete the plain copies yourself. navig cabinet import-paperwork <handoff.jsonl> does the same import from any manifest.

All commands

navig cabinet: add · list · search · show · open · close · export · edit · remove · undelete · expiring · dates · remind · backup · restore · import-paperwork · verify · status · passphrase set|clear.

navig paperwork: scan · review · apply · undo · handoff · echeances · reply · index (PAPERWORK.md).

Lists and reports take --json.

Location: ~/.navig/cabinet/, or NAVIG_CABINET_DIR.