Rules system

Rules are the core mechanism for automatically extracting metadata from file and folder names. Instead of manually tagging every model, you write rules once in a findamodel.yaml file and FindAModel computes the correct values for every file at index time.

Why use rules?

If you already organise your models into a logical folder structure - creators at the top level, then collections, then categories - rules let you extract that information without duplicating it in config files.

For example, a folder tree like:

Alice/
  Fantasy/
    Elves/
      elf_warrior_supported.stl
      elf_mage.stl

With a single root-level findamodel.yaml, rules can automatically extract:

creator = “Alice” (from the root folder name)
collection = “Fantasy” (from the second-level folder)
model_name = “Elf Warrior” or “Elf Mage” (from the filename)
supported = true/false (from whether “supported” appears in the filename)
tags = additional per-model tags (for example, adding supported when filenames match)

Rule types

FindAModel supports one rule type:

Rule	Best for
`regex`	Matching patterns anywhere in the path - folder names, full path, or filename

Rule syntax

A rule replaces the plain value for a field with a YAML object:

field_name:
  rule: regex
  <option>: <value>
  ...

rule: regex is optional - if omitted, regex is assumed.

Rules go in findamodel.yaml files alongside (or instead of) plain values. They are inherited by subdirectories just like plain values - see Inheritance.

Evaluation order

For each model file, metadata is resolved in this order (highest priority last):

Inherited plain values from ancestor directories
Own plain value in this directory’s findamodel.yaml
Inherited rule from an ancestor directory
Own rule in this directory’s findamodel.yaml
model_metadata per-file override ← highest priority

Rules override plain values of equal or lower specificity. A plain value in the same directory as a rule means the plain value is ignored - the rule takes effect instead.

Next steps

Regex rule - match and extract values from path segments

Regex rule