# Set up Folder Monitor

Install the Paige Folder Monitor desktop app, connect it with an API key, and create monitoring rules so files dropped in a Windows folder upload themselves to a scan job — with the completed-folder guarantee explained.

Product: paige · Audience: system-administrator · Time: 30 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/paige/document-processing/set-up-folder-monitor

**At the end of this guide, a Windows folder feeds a Paige scan job by itself: every file that lands there uploads, gets accepted for processing, and moves into a `completed` subfolder — and you'll know that the move only happens after Paige has genuinely accepted the batch, which is the guarantee that makes the folder safe to trust.**

Folder Monitor is Paige's desktop companion for network scanners, copiers, and any system that can drop files into a folder. It watches the folders you tell it to, uploads matching files to the scan job you pick, and keeps a local record of everything it did.

## Install it

Run the **Paige Folder Monitor** installer — a per-machine Windows MSI — on the machine that can see the folder (administrator rights required). It creates desktop and Start-menu shortcuts and starts the app when it finishes.

The window has four tabs — **Dashboard**, **Rules**, **Activity**, **Settings** — and a status line that reads **No Active Rules** until you've built one.

## Connect it to Paige

Folder Monitor authenticates with an API key you create in the Paige web app:

1. In Paige (in your browser), open the avatar menu at the top right and choose **API Keys**.

2. Enter a name for the key — name it for the machine, like `Warehouse scan PC` — and click **Create API Key**.

3. Copy the key immediately. The app means it: "Make sure to copy your API key now. You won't be able to see it again!" (Losing it is not a crisis — you create a new key and retire the old one.)

4. Back in Folder Monitor, open **Settings**. Under **Paige API Configuration**, leave **API Endpoint** at its default (`https://client-api.paige.app/api/v1`), paste the key into **API Key**, and click **Test**.
   
   **What you should see:** *Connection successful*. If you get "Connection failed - check your API key and endpoint," re-copy the key — and if this machine sits behind a strict outbound firewall, make sure it can reach the endpoint over HTTPS.

5. Click **Save Changes**. From then on Settings shows "A Paige API key is securely stored for this Windows account" — the key never has to be typed again.

*[Screenshot: Folder Monitor's Settings tab with the Paige API Configuration card and a successful connection test]*

## Create a monitoring rule

A rule is one watched folder pointed at one scan job.

1. On the **Rules** tab, click **Add Rule**. The **Create Monitoring Rule** dialog opens.

2. **Basic Information** — give the rule a name that says what flows through it (the placeholder's example: "Invoice Processing").

3. **Folder Configuration** — **Browse** to the **Folder to Monitor**, then set **File Filters**. The default is `*.pdf, *.jpg, *.png`; use wildcards like `*.pdf` or specific filenames, or leave it empty to take every file. Filter deliberately — a `*.pdf`-only rule quietly ignores the TIFFs your copier produces.

4. **Paige Configuration** — pick the **Organization**, then the **Scan Job** the files should feed.

5. Click **Create Rule**, then **Enable** it. The status line switches to **Monitoring Active**.

> **NOTE:** An enabled rule can't be edited — the edit button greys out with "Disable this rule before editing it." **Disable**, change, re-enable. That's a safety design, not a bug.

## How you know a file made it

Folder Monitor's handling is deliberately conservative: a file is moved into the **`completed`** subfolder of the watched folder only after Paige has accepted the batch for processing — not merely when the bytes finished uploading. So the watched folder itself is your state display:

- **File still in the folder** — not yet accepted; check the **Activity** tab and the **Dashboard** (active uploads, queue depth, success rate).
- **File in `completed`** — Paige has it; look for it in the scan job's batches.

Uploads retry on failure automatically (the retry count and delay are adjustable under **Settings** > **Performance Settings**, along with concurrent workers and a maximum file size). Under **System Settings**, **Start with Windows** is worth turning on for a production machine — a monitor that only runs when someone remembers to launch it isn't monitoring.

**Success check:** drop one test file into the watched folder. Within moments it should appear in the **Activity** log, move to `completed`, and show up as a new batch in the scan job.

## What's next

- [Set up scan jobs](https://help.ademero.com/paige/document-processing/set-up-scan-jobs)
- [Teach Paige to identify document types](https://help.ademero.com/paige/document-processing/teach-paige-to-identify-document-types)