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Frequently Asked Questions

Gety isn’t built to index everything. It’s designed to help you find what actually matters: meaningful content you want to read and refer to, like Word documents, slides, PDFs, and notes.

We don’t index system files or source code. Those belong in other specialized tools. Gety focuses on the content you want, can, and need to read.

Currently, Gety supports the following local file formats:

  • Text ( .txt )
  • Markdown ( .md )
  • PDF ( .pdf )
  • Word ( .docx, .doc )
  • PowerPoint (.pptx, .ppt)
  • WPS ( .wps )
  • HTML ( .html )
  • Image ( .avif, .bmp, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .webp )

In the future, we plan to support more formats.

Will indexing all local documents put a heavy load on my computer?​

Not really, Gety is built with lightweight performance in mind, especially for laptops and other resource-constrained environments.

By default, Gety automatically skips irrelevant system and temporary files. When you launch Gety for the first time, the setup guide lets you easily exclude any folders you don’t want indexed. You can also update these exclusions anytime later in the settings.

We’ve also put a lot of effort into keeping disk usage low: the index database is heavily compressed to minimize storage impact. You can always check actual space usage by visiting the data folder

  • Windows: C:\Users\{your_username}\AppData\Roaming\ai.gety
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ai.gety

Does indexing all my files take a long time?​

Yes, the initial full indexing does take some time. This is because we perform OCR text recognition and semantic analysis on documents. To avoid impacting your normal computer usage, we intentionally keep the indexing speed moderate to minimize system resource consumption.

But don't worry, we offer several optimizations:

  1. Windows GPU acceleration and macOS hardware acceleration are in development and will significantly speed things up once released
  2. Only the first indexing is full. After that, only new and modified files are processed
  3. You can adjust indexing speed in Settings → General → Background Task Priority based on your needs
  4. You can still search already indexed files while indexing continues

Can I use search before indexing is complete?​

Yes, you can start searching immediately without waiting.

File titles become searchable within about a minute thanks to Quick Indexing. Content search requires Gety to extract file contents in the background, and OCR document indexing requires text recognition, which takes a bit longer. But you can search the parts that are already processed at any time.

The same goes for semantic search. Even if semantic indexing isn't fully complete, you can still search the files that have been processed.

Does the index update in real time when files change?​

Yes. Gety monitors your file changes in real time. Once it detects new, modified, or deleted files, it automatically updates the index. This means your index data is always up to date. No manual refresh or rebuilding needed.

What are Gety's key search capabilities?​

We've done extensive low-level optimizations. Search results appear in under 1 second, no matter how large your file library is.

To make your entire search workflow smooth and efficient, we've put a lot of work into user experience:

  1. Preview: Quickly preview content without opening files
  2. Auto-jump to paragraphs: Automatically jumps to the relevant paragraph when you open a preview
  3. Filter: Quickly filter results by file type, modification time, match type, and more
  4. Smart sorting: Intelligently sorts by relevance or update time, keeping the most relevant files at the top

What are some search tips for using Gety?​

Gety offers multiple search methods to help you find files quickly, intelligently, and precisely:

  1. Keyword search: Simply enter keywords. Gety quickly scans the full content of files and returns results instantly
  2. Semantic search: Even if you don't remember the exact words, Gety understands your intent. Searching for "contract" might find files containing "agreement" or "statement of work" based on meaning, not just keyword matching
  3. Exact search: When you know exactly what you're looking for, wrap your search term in quotes. For example, searching "product design" will only match documents containing that exact phrase, not files that mention "product" or "design" separately
  4. Filter: Quickly narrow your search by file type, modification time, match type, and other criteria to find your target files faster

AI Integration​

How do I use the AI integration feature?​

Go to Settings → AI Integration. Gety offers two ways to let AI access your local files:

  • One-click integration: Select the AI tool you use (like Claude, Cherry Studio, Cursor, etc.) and follow the built-in configuration guide step by step to quickly complete setup
  • Manual configuration: Customize configuration through MCP protocol and add Gety as a data source to your AI application (see detailed configuration tutorial)

Once configured, make sure Gety is running in the background. You can then directly use Agent in your AI application and let AI provide answers based on your local files.

What is AI integration for?​

AI integration lets your AI tools access local files and provide more accurate, useful answers based on your private data.

  • Chatbot: Let AI chatbots directly search and reference your local files. For example, you can ask "Find the budget allocation section in the project proposal" or "Summarize last month's meeting notes." AI will search your local files and answer, instead of giving generic web answers.
  • Agent: Also provides local private information, but agents can execute more complex tasks. For example, let AI conduct deep research, analyze multiple documents comprehensively and generate reports, or develop marketing strategies based on your market research files.

How does Gety protect my privacy when using AI integration?​

We've built multiple layers of privacy protection. First, only search result snippets are sent by default. Full documents are queried only when critical. This means AI sees small fragments most of the time, not complete files.

Second, a confirmation window appears each time content is shared. In Settings → AI Integration → Data Sharing Control, choose: Always every time: Confirm with a popup before each share, and preview the data. Always allow: Share data directly without popup confirmation.

Additionally, you can use any AI provider you trust, or use local models for complete offline operation. Your data never leaves your computer. Your files always stay local. AI only accesses content when you authorize it.

Which apps/models can I use Gety with?​

Gety is built to be open. Any software or model that supports MCP protocol or API can use Gety. This includes Claude, ChatGPT, local open-source models, and other AI tools.

We aim to connect all your private data. Currently, Gety supports local files (DOCX, PDF, TXT, MD, XLSX, PPT, and text in images). In the future, we'll expand to email, cloud storage, and more data sources.

Troubleshooting​

Why can't I find content inside a specific file?​

If you can find the file by its name but searching for content keywords returns no results, please troubleshoot step by step:

  1. Clear search filters: First, check if you've enabled specific filter conditions near the search box (like file type, connectors, time, etc.).
  • Action: Click [Clear] in the filter bar, then try searching again.

  1. Check indexing progress: Gety needs to read file contents and build an index before full-text search works. While "Quick Search" (file names only) is built very quickly, content indexing may still be running in the background.
  • Action: Go back to the home screen and check the indexing status in the bottom right corner.
  • Check: If the status shows "Content Search" is still extracting, please wait patiently until it shows "Ready".

  1. Refresh content for individual files: If the home screen shows "Ready" but you still can't search the content, try searching for the complete file name first and evaluate based on the results:
  • Case 1: Can't find the file name → The file hasn't been discovered by the system yet. See: [Why can't I find my file?]
  • Case 2: Can find the file name but not the content → Content extraction may have encountered an error. Follow the manual refresh process below.

Manually re-extract file content: If you're in "Case 2" above, manually refresh the file's index by following this path:

  1. Go to Settings → Local Files → Search Folders.
  2. Find the corresponding folder path, click the menu button on the right, and select [Open Index Viewer].
  3. In the "Index Viewer" that appears, find the file.
  4. Click the [Refresh Content] button at the bottom.

If the status shows "Extraction Complete" but you still can't find the target keywords, click "Index Viewer" to check the preview. If the preview is indeed missing the keyword content, this means the extraction for this file type needs improvement. Please contact hi@gety.ai with feedback, and we'll continue to optimize the extractor for this file type.

Why can't I find my file?​

If entering the complete file name returns no search results, it means the file hasn't been indexed by Gety yet:

  1. Confirm indexing is complete: Go back to the home screen and check the indexing status in the bottom right corner. Make sure "Quick Search" is complete.
  • Time reference: Usually takes tens of seconds on Windows, a few minutes on macOS.

  1. Check index scope settings: Confirm the folder containing the file is checked and included in the index scope.
  • Path: Go to Settings → Local Files → Search Folders.
  • Action: Check if the folder containing the file is selected.

  1. Confirm file type: Gety only indexes specific file types by default. If the file type isn't enabled, the system will skip it during scanning.
  • Path: Go to Settings → Local Files → File Types.
  • Action: Check if the file type (like PDF, Word, etc.) is in the list.

Additional notes about search mechanism
  • Search logic: Gety focuses on valuable readable document content (like PDF, Word). Code files or system files are not currently in the default search scope.
  • Full disk search suggestion: If your core need is "search all file names across the entire disk" (including system files), we recommend using Gety alongside Listary.
  • Feedback: If you need support for more formats, please contact hi@gety.ai.

How do I start the gety-service?​

If Gety completely loses search functionality and the number of searchable documents is 0, it's usually because the gety-service hasn't started properly.

Start the Gety background service:

  1. Right-click on the computer taskbar and select "Task Manager".
  2. Click the "Services" icon on the left and enter gety in the search box.
  3. Find gety-service. If the status shows "Stopped", right-click and select "Start".
  4. After the service starts successfully, restart the Gety client to restore normal operation.

How do I find log files?​

  1. Go to Settings → General → Advanced Settings and find the "Log Files" section
  2. Click the [Open Directory] button. The system will automatically open the folder containing .log files

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