Who it is for
- Legal, admin and HR staff. Contracts, ID copies and stamped scans arrive daily from different sources with different naming.
- Self-employed people and freelancers. You manage your own contracts and credentials and need to find them months later.
- Anyone sorting family paperwork. Property, insurance and ID scans you do not want to send to any online service.
How contracts are named
A file counts as a contract only when two things hold: the text contains words such as contract, agreement or memorandum, and it has structural fields such as parties, signing or a signature block. English contracts work the same way, with terms like NDA, services agreement, effective date and signature.
- Title. The first line or a title in 《》 brackets is preferred. If neither exists, the local model looks in the text, and its answer is used only if that title actually appears in the document.
- Date. The signing or effective date, falling back to the file date when none is found.
- Illustration:
2026-05-20_Share Transfer Agreement.pdf. Parties and amounts are not written into the name.
For contracts Filewise only suggests a new name. It does not suggest a destination folder; where the file goes is your call.
How IDs are handled
- A file is treated as an ID only when an ID keyword matches together with either an ID-number pattern or ID-style fields, so a contract that mentions "ID card" once is not misread.
- The name only carries the type, for example "ID card_self". The ID number is never written into a file name.
- These files get a "local only" badge, a reminder that the content is read on your Mac and not uploaded.
- No filing destination is suggested automatically; the note suggests you move the file into a protected folder yourself.
Scans and screenshots
Images such as scans and screenshots go through Apple Vision text recognition for Chinese and English, while PDFs are read from their text layer. If the result is garbled or the signals are too weak, the original name stays and nothing is made up. The cleaner the scan, the steadier the recognition.
What it does not do
- It does not judge whether a contract is signed or valid. It reads the title and the date.
- It has no legal filing taxonomy and does not decide which folder a contract belongs in.
- Handwriting and low-resolution scans reduce accuracy; in that case it prefers to keep the original name.
A safe way to try it
Every rename is preceded by a plan you review, and every step lands in the undo log. Try a batch of unimportant scans first, confirm the names match what you expect, and only then use it on contracts and IDs.
Requirements: Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later. Free to download.
FAQ
Are ID photos and contracts uploaded?
No. Reading and naming run offline on your Mac, and file contents never leave the machine.
Do amounts and names inside a contract end up in the file name?
No. Contract names use only the title and the date, not the parties or amounts.
What happens to a scan it cannot read?
It keeps its original name and waits in the queue for you to look at. It does not invent a name.
