# Why Suchi files every document under a number > Why Suchi gives each document one short numbered home, keeps the tree at one category level, and recovers the other relationships through search and tags. A folder tree rarely becomes confusing because of one decision. Each file is saved somewhere that makes sense at the time, and each new folder solves the immediate problem. A few years later, ten documents that matter are spread across two folders: ```text Documents/ ├── 2025/ │ └── Document (1).pdf | ├── Important/ │ ├── Bank/ │ │ └── statement(3).pdf │ ├── Important - old/ │ │ └── Document.pdf │ └── scan0034.pdf | ├── Insurance 2024/ │ └── policy_final_FINAL.pdf | ├── TAX STUFF/ | └── To sort/ ├── IMG_2291.jpg ├── receipt.pdf └── scan0035.pdf | Downloads/ ├── 8f3c2a91-invoice.pdf └── WhatsApp Image 2026-03-14 at 18.02.11.jpeg ``` Each choice had a reason. `Important` was meant for what matters, then grew a `Bank` folder and a place for whatever had stopped being current. `Insurance 2024` holds a motor policy for 2026–27. `TAX STUFF` is empty because the property tax receipt went into `2025`. `To sort` is where things went when none of the other folders seemed right, and the last two files never left Downloads. The filenames do not help either. `scan0034.pdf` is a Harbour Health policy. `scan0035.pdf` is a degree certificate. `Document.pdf` is the letter from Northwind Bank confirming that a loan was closed, which someone will ask for when the house is sold. Those names record the order in which a scanner, a browser and a phone happened to produce the files. To find the loan letter again, you open files until one of them is the loan letter. Suchi gives each document one numbered category and stops the filing tree there. Metadata and search carry the other connections. For a document archive, Suchi uses an area-and-category structure. ## Give the documents one home Under **Settings → Archive configuration → Filing tree**, Suchi offers **Solo**, **Household**, **Freelance**, **Small business** and **Blank slate** as starting points. Take the ten loose files above: two policies, a service invoice, a degree certificate, a bank statement, a loan letter, a property tax receipt, two medical bills and an electricity bill. The relevant parts of the Household tree are: ```text 10-19 Family admin 11 Family IDs · 12 Insurance · 13 Vehicles 14 Memberships & associations · 15 Education · 16 Employment 20-29 Money 21 Bank & card statements · 22 Investments · 23 Income tax 24 Loans · 25 Purchases & warranties 30-39 Health 31 Medical records · 32 Prescriptions · 33 Medical billing 50-59 Home 51 Utilities · 52 Housing ``` Category names get you most of the way. Their short descriptions handle the close calls. A motor policy stays with other policies in `12 Insurance`, while the car's service invoice goes to `13 Vehicles`. A pharmacy receipt goes to `33 Medical billing`; `32 Prescriptions` holds prescription records. With those choices made, Suchi renders the ten documents on disk like this: ```text rendered/ ├── 10-19 Family admin │ ├── 12 Insurance │ │ ├── 2025 │ │ │ └── 2025-10-04 Health policy 2025–26__1.pdf │ │ └── 2026 │ │ └── 2026-06-12 Motor policy 2026–27__6.pdf │ ├── 13 Vehicles │ │ └── 2026 │ │ └── 2026-03-14 Car service invoice__10.jpeg │ └── 15 Education │ └── 2019 │ └── 2019-07-20 Degree certificate__2.pdf ├── 20-29 Money │ ├── 21 Bank & card statements │ │ └── 2026 │ │ └── 2026-08-02 Statement July 2026__9.pdf │ └── 24 Loans │ └── 2026 │ └── 2026-05-11 Loan closure letter__3.pdf ├── 30-39 Health │ └── 33 Medical billing │ └── 2026 │ ├── 2026-04-18 Hospital bill__4.jpg │ └── 2026-10-09 Pharmacy receipt October 2026__7.pdf └── 50-59 Home ├── 51 Utilities │ └── 2026 │ └── 2026-08-01 Electricity bill July 2026__8.pdf └── 52 Housing └── 2026 └── 2026-07-30 Property tax receipt 2026–27__5.pdf ``` Another household may draw these boundaries differently. Here, the written descriptions give the next motor policy the same home as this one. ## Keep one category level In `20-29 Money`, "21 Bank & card statements" is a complete category. Suchi does not divide it into `21.01 Current accounts`, then add another level for a bank or a particular account. Every category ends with one two-digit code. This keeps the address short and makes every branch stop in the same place. Banking cannot stop at `21` while insurance runs on to `12.04.03`. Filing has two choices: the area, then the category. You never have to remember whether a motor policy followed `Money → Insurance → Motor` or `Vehicles → Van → Insurance`. A deeper tree can look precise during setup. In use, every client, account, car and project creates another branch to remember later. Suchi keeps those distinctions out of the filing tree. The Household description settles the choice once and sends every policy, including motor policies, to `12 Insurance`. The category is a stable filing address, not a complete description of the document. The van can remain a tag or typed field. Meridian General is the correspondent, and the policy text is searchable. You can search any of those facts without adding another folder. When one Suchi installation holds more than one filing system, such as separate household and business archives, `S01.21` says where to look: `S01` selects the archive and `21` names the category. There is no separate area number because the first digit of `21` already places it in area `20–29`. Adding the area again would repeat the same information and make the tree feel deeper than it is. Documents sit directly in a category in Suchi's filing tree. The generated folders group them by year, but the year is there for browsing and is not another category. ## What the numbers add Good folder names can reproduce the same hierarchy. The numbers preserve its order. Sorted only by name, `Bank & card statements`, `Education`, `Employment`, `Family IDs`, `Housing` and `Income tax` are scattered. With numbers, the Money categories stay together in the 20s in Suchi's sidebar and in every file manager. A number also survives a category rename. A reviewed change from `12 Insurance` to `12 Policies` keeps the same documents on the same numbered shelf. The range makes the size limit real. "Keep this area small" is advice; requiring its category codes to sit between 11 and 19 is a rule that Suchi can enforce. When the range is full, categories must be broadened or merged instead of hidden under another level. The address is short enough to say and type. "It's under 21" works over the phone, and `jd:21` is shorter than `jd:"Bank & card statements"`. It also stays the same when the category has a name in another language. Suchi always shows the name beside the number, so you do not need to memorise `21` before it becomes familiar. Suchi sets aside `00-09` for the generated system index and `40-49` for **System**. **49 Inbox** holds documents without a reliable category. `00-09 System index/00.00 archive.huml` is a plain-text map of the current tree and its category descriptions, not a list of documents. Suchi refreshes it after a committed tree change. The default path keeps the address useful outside the application. It repeats the document's recorded created date inside its year folder: `…/2026/2026-06-12 Motor policy 2026–27__6.pdf`. The year keeps the category easy to browse. The full ISO date sorts files by day and stays with a file copied elsewhere. Suchi does not rely on filesystem timestamps or embedded metadata, which may change, disagree or be absent. If the recorded created date is missing, it uses the added date, then `undated`. Even without Suchi, the path carries the area, category, year, date, title and document number. [Keeping a Suchi archive recoverable for thirty years](/blog/thirty-year-archive/) covers the rest of the archive needed to read those files independently. If you keep paper originals, [an archive serial number can give the scan and its sheet one shared label](/blog/archive-serial-numbers/) so the box can remain in number order. Numbers on disk are optional. A [folder layout](/blog/keep-your-folder-layout/) can retain a structure you already use or omit the numbers entirely, while the documents remain filed in their numbered categories inside Suchi. ## Filing and finding in Suchi The numbers are for reading and navigating; you do not have to type one to file every document. A [Watched folder](https://docs.suchi.page/config#filesystem-watch-ingest) takes whatever lands in the directory your scanner uses and never moves, renames or deletes those originals. Rules file recurring documents. Local matching can suggest a category from documents already in the archive, and an optional classifier receives the area names, category names and descriptions. Suggestions can wait for review. Anything without a reliable destination remains in **49 Inbox**. [From inbox to filed](/blog/filing-loop/) follows one document through that process. The motor policy from the earlier example stays in `12 Insurance`, while its record carries the details the filing tree leaves out. Meridian General is the correspondent; `van` can be a tag, a typed field can hold the renewal date, and a [link can join the policy to the one it replaces](/blog/versions-and-links/). Search works across those facts and the text Suchi extracts from PDFs, scans, email and office documents: ```text health insurance jd:12 from:"Meridian General" tag:van -tag:sold field:"Invoice amount">=100 ``` Plain words search titles and extracted text, so a badly named scan can appear before it leaves **Inbox**. `jd:`, `from:` and `tag:` narrow the result by category, correspondent and tag. Separate clauses must all match; a leading `-` excludes one. A money field such as **Invoice amount** can be compared as a value instead of searched as text. A saved query is a live **View**. New documents that match appear there without moving or creating a second folder tree. A View can show every document tagged `van`, every renewal from one insurer or every invoice above an amount. Tags are looser than categories. A document can have several, and a rule or optional classifier can propose them. The classifier sees up to one hundred of the archive's most-used tag names and reuses an exact or plural match. It does not merge synonyms, so `car` and `vehicle` can remain separate until someone tidies them. ## Limits of the filing tree - **One category per document.** A house purchase can span `52 Housing`, `24 Loans` and other categories. Tags, Views and links can collect or connect those documents, but they do not place one document in two categories or create a project folder in the numbered tree. - **The tree encodes choices.** A built-in tree decides where borderline documents go and how much room each area gets; yours may draw those lines differently. That room is fixed: an area holds nine categories, so a category-per-client scheme will run out. Correspondents fit that relationship better. - **Addresses take time to learn.** Until it becomes familiar, `24` means nothing on its own. Suchi therefore displays `24 Loans` and accepts either `jd:24` or `jd:"24 Loans"`, keeping the full label visible while the number becomes familiar. - **A tree is still required.** Suchi requires a filing tree even when tags would be enough. An uncertain filing suggestion leaves the document in `49 Inbox` in either application mode. Review first goes further: even confident inferred changes wait for approval. The five supplied trees are starting points, not reviewed standards or compliance advice. **Build your own** combines ready-made category sets for each area, while **Import or export** accepts a custom HuML or TOML tree. Before a change is applied, Suchi previews the complete target tree, name collisions and the number of documents in every affected category. Open **Settings → Archive configuration → Filing tree**, compare the supplied trees, and preview the one closest to how you already divide your documents. Nothing changes until you confirm it. When the house is sold and someone asks for the letter confirming the loan was closed, it is in `24 Loans`, under its year, titled for what it is. Searching for `loan closure` finds it too, because plain words match the title and the letter's text. If Suchi is not running, the same path opens in a file manager.