Rename Files Intelligently

Automatically rename files based on their content, dates, or patterns.

IMG_4832.png. Document (1).docx. Untitled-23.pdf.

Your files deserve better names. Claw analyzes content and proposes intelligent renames.

What You’ll Accomplish

🏷️ Rename files based on their actual content
📅 Add dates to file names automatically
🔄 Apply consistent naming patterns across folders
👻 Preview all renames before they happen

Step 1: Select Files to Rename

Open Claw and describe what you need:

I have 100 screenshots in my Desktop folder.
Rename them based on what's shown in each image.

Or be more specific:

Rename all PDFs in Documents to include the document date
in the format: YYYY-MM-DD-OriginalName.pdf

Step 2: Review the Proposals

Claw shows you every proposed rename side-by-side:

📝 Proposed Renames
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Current Name              →  Proposed Name
──────────────────────────────────────────
IMG_4832.png              →  Dashboard-Analytics-Chart.png
Screenshot 2025-01-03.png →  Login-Page-Redesign-v2.png
Untitled.docx             →  Q4-Budget-Proposal.docx
scan001.pdf               →  2025-01-02-Acme-Invoice.pdf

[Approve All] [Review One-by-One] [Cancel]

Step 3: Approve, Edit, or Skip

For each file, you can:

Action	What Happens
✅ Approve	Rename as proposed
✏️ Edit	Modify the proposed name
⏭️ Skip	Leave unchanged
✅ Approve All	Accept all remaining

Naming Patterns

By Content (AI-Powered)

Rename screenshots based on what's visible in the image

Uses AI vision to understand image content

By Date

Add the file creation date to all PDFs: YYYY-MM-DD-filename.pdf

By Pattern

Rename invoice PDFs to: Vendor-InvoiceNumber-Date.pdf

By Metadata

Rename photos using their EXIF date: 2025-01-03-IMG_4832.jpg

Bulk Renaming Examples

Goal	What to Say
Screenshots	”Rename screenshots based on their visual content”
Invoices	”Rename to Vendor-Amount-Date format”
Photos	”Use photo date from metadata”
Documents	”Add creation date prefix”
Clean up	”Remove spaces and special characters from all filenames”

Safety: The Ghost File Preview

Before any file is renamed, you see a Ghost Preview:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📄 Current: IMG_4832.png               │
│  👻 Proposed: Dashboard-Chart.png       │
│                                         │
│  The ghost file shows you exactly what  │
│  the new name will be before commit.    │
│                                         │
│  [Approve] [Edit Name] [Skip]           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Nothing changes until you approve.

Undo Any Rename

Made a mistake? Every rename is logged:

Open History in Claw
Find the rename operation
Click Undo

The file reverts to its original name instantly.

Tips for Best Results

Start with a test batch — Try 5-10 files before processing hundreds
Be specific about format — “Use hyphens, no spaces, lowercase”
Include examples — “Like: Acme-INV001-2025-01-03.pdf”

Next Steps

Organize Downloads — Sort files into folders
Extract PDF Data — Pull data from documents
Undo History — Learn about the transaction log