File¶
Reads a file that has been uploaded to the workflow and returns its full path along with its UTF-8 text contents. For files commonly considered binary (images, office docs, archives, etc.), only the file path is output and text contents are suppressed. Useful for passing a file path downstream and optionally extracting human-readable text for text-friendly formats.
Usage¶
Use this node at the start of a workflow when you need to reference an uploaded file by path and, if applicable, read its UTF-8 text contents. Typical flows include routing the file path to processors that accept files and sending the text contents to text-processing nodes when the file is a text-based format.
Inputs¶
| Field | Required | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| file | True | STRING | Select a file from the workflow's uploaded files directory. The selection list is populated from files you have uploaded to this workflow. | notes/session_plan.txt |
Outputs¶
| Field | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| file_path | STRING | Absolute or annotated path to the selected file for use by downstream nodes. | /input/notes/session_plan.txt |
| text_contents | STRING | UTF-8 decoded contents of the file. For non-text or blocked file types, this may be empty or not human-readable. | Agenda:\n1) Introductions\n2) Roadmap review\n3) Action items |
Important Notes¶
- This node suppresses text extraction for common binary file types such as images, PDFs, Office documents, and archives. For these, text_contents may be empty.
- Text is decoded as UTF-8. Files in other encodings may fail to decode, resulting in empty or partial contents.
- You must upload the file to the workflow's input directory before it will appear in the selection list.
- The file path is still returned even when text extraction is suppressed, allowing downstream file-processing nodes to consume it.
- Validation ensures the selected file exists; invalid selections will fail validation.
Troubleshooting¶
- Selected file not listed: Ensure the file has been uploaded to this workflow and resides in the workflow's input directory.
- Invalid file path error: The file may have been removed or renamed after selection. Re-upload or reselect the file.
- Empty text_contents: The file may be a binary or blocked type (e.g., .png, .pdf, .docx) or not valid UTF-8. Use a text-based format (e.g., .txt, .json) or process the file differently.
- Garbled characters in text_contents: The file encoding may not be UTF-8. Convert the file to UTF-8 and try again.
Example Pipelines¶
