ProFiler Suite

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Note

AI agents and LLM tools reading this repository should refer to llms.txt for codebase architecture, primary features, contract boundaries, and verification commands.

Local-first document detective — full-text indexing, OCR, PDF tools, duplicate detection & privacy checks in one PySide6 app.

ProFiler Suite is a local-first desktop file and document manager for private collections. It unifies full-text file indexing, Tesseract OCR, PDF manipulation, SHA-256 duplicate detection, privacy compliance audits (Datenschutzampel), and companion synchronization in a responsive Windows-oriented PySide6 desktop app.

It is purpose-built for users who manage private, proprietary, or regulated documents and want high-speed search, preview, PDF processing, and redaction workflows without ever transmitting data to a third-party cloud.

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Quick Navigation

• Architecture
• Workflow Lifecycle
• Core Capabilities & Security Invariants
• Target Personas & Use Cases
• Comparative Matrix & Alternatives
• Feature Highlights
• Visual Interface & Screenshot
• When To Use ProFiler
• Quick Start & Setup
• Windows Launcher & Build Flow
• Configuration & Local Storage
• Included Tools & Utilities
• Supported File Formats & OCR
• Sibling Ecosystem & Integrations
• Third-Party Licenses & Compliance
• Security Policy & SLAs

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Architecture

graph TD
    subgraph Sources["1. Document & File Sources"]
        A1["Local Directory Tree"]
        A2["Document Folders (PDF, DOCX, TXT, RTF)"]
        A3["Scanned Paperwork & Images"]
        A4["OneDrive Mounts (Cloud-Placeholder Aware)"]
    end

    subgraph CoreEngine["2. Core Ingestion & Indexing"]
        B1["Crawler & File Watchdog"]
        B2["SHA-256 Fingerprinting"]
        B3["SQLite Local Index (Versions, Metadata)"]
    end

    subgraph Processing["3. Document & PDF Processing Layer"]
        C1["Tesseract OCR Engine"]
        C2["PDF Utilities (Encrypt, Decrypt, Extract, Redact)"]
        C3["Deduplication & Version Tracker"]
    end

    subgraph PrivacyGate["4. Privacy & Workspace Security"]
        D1["Datenschutzampel (PII Pattern Detector)"]
        D2["Redacted Workspace Exchange (JSON Schema v1)"]
    end

    subgraph UI["5. Presentation & Companion Integration"]
        E1["PySide6 UnifiedMainWindow (Dark/Light Themes)"]
        E2["SQLiteViewer (Index Inspector)"]
        E3["ProSync Sibling Launcher"]
    end

    Sources --> CoreEngine
    CoreEngine --> Processing
    Processing --> PrivacyGate
    PrivacyGate --> UI

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Workflow Lifecycle

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor User as Desktop User
    participant UI as PySide6 GUI (UnifiedMainWindow)
    participant Crawler as File Watchdog & Crawler
    participant Index as SQLite Local Index
    participant OCR as Tesseract OCR / PDF Engine
    participant Gate as Datenschutzampel (PII Detector)
    participant Exchange as Redacted Workspace Exchange

    User->>UI: Select document folder or file
    UI->>Crawler: Scan path & calculate SHA-256 fingerprint
    Crawler->>Index: Store file metadata & version state
    opt Scanned Document / Image PDF
        UI->>OCR: Trigger Tesseract OCR / text extraction
        OCR->>Index: Update full-text search index (FTS)
    end
    User->>UI: Request document export / sharing
    UI->>Gate: Execute PII & sensitive pattern check
    alt Sensitive Data Detected
        Gate-->>UI: Warning / Redaction prompt (Datenschutzampel RED/YELLOW)
        User->>UI: Apply PDF redaction / anonymize workspace
    else Safe Document
        Gate-->>UI: Clear status (Datenschutzampel GREEN)
    end
    UI->>Exchange: Export redacted workspace JSON (Schema v1)
    Exchange-->>User: Validated, zero-leak handoff artifact

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Core Capabilities & Security Invariants

Invariant Code	Guarantee & Boundary	Architectural Implementation	Verification & Evidence
INV-LOCAL-01	100% Local-First & Zero-Egress	All SQLite databases, indexes, and document caches remain strictly on the local machine. Zero cloud upload, zero network telemetry, and no mandatory online registration.	Verified via network-free test suite & POSIX/Windows filesystem isolation.
INV-SESSION-02	Session-Only Secrets	PDF passwords and temporary decryption keys are retained exclusively in volatile process memory and never written to disk, settings, or log files.	Contract-tested in tests/test_security_hardening.py (test_settings_passwords_are_session_only).
INV-GATE-03	PII & Datenschutzampel Heuristic Gate	Built-in pattern detection (Datenschutzampel) flags sensitive numbers, tax IDs, IBANs, credentials, and personal identifiable information before export or handoff.	Validated in ProFiler_Datenschutzampel.py and tests/test_anonymization.py.
INV-SCHEMA-04	Redacted Workspace Exchange	Workspace export and import conform strictly to JSON-Schema v1, stripping machine-specific absolute paths, system secrets, and unmanaged file pointers.	Tested in tests/test_workspace_exchange.py with BOM-free UTF-8 serialization.
INV-PLACEHOLDER-05	Cloud-Placeholder Awareness	Intelligently identifies OneDrive and cloud placeholder files, preventing unprompted hydration or excessive disk usage during bulk indexing scans.	Implemented in Crawler and verified in tests/test_bug_regressions.py.
INV-UNPRIV-06	Non-Elevation & User-Space Operation	Operates strictly as an unprivileged user process (RunAsInvoker). Settings and SQLite indices reside under standard %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProFilerSuite (or XDG standards on POSIX).	Verified in tests/test_app_paths.py and tests/test_platform_smoke_contract.py.
INV-ATOMIC-07	Atomic SQLite Indexing	Indexing transactions leverage WAL mode with atomic commits, ensuring crash resilience and multi-thread readability without database corruption.	Tested in SQLiteViewer.py and database inspection tests.
INV-INTEGRITY-08	SHA-256 Deduplication	Identifies exact byte-for-byte duplicate files across different directory branches using cryptographic SHA-256 hashing.	Verified across diverse file types in test suites.
INV-OFFLINE-09	Offline Tesseract OCR & Poppler Sandbox	Optical character recognition and PDF page rendering execute locally via unprivileged subprocesses with zero external API calls.	Tested in tests/test_security_hardening.py.
INV-SLA-10	48h Security Response & 5-Day Triage SLA	Security vulnerabilities receive an initial response within 48 hours and an actionable triage report within 5 business days.	Formalized in SECURITY.md and verified in tests/test_metadata.py.

Target Personas & Use Cases

Persona	Primary Needs & Workflows	Key Pain Points Solved by ProFiler
Legal, Compliance & Privacy Officers	Auditing local document archives for GDPR/DSGVO compliance, sanitizing PDF case files, redacting sensitive client information, and preventing accidental data exposure.	Eliminates Cloud Leakage: Built-in Datenschutzampel detects PII and flags files with traffic-light status before export. In-memory redaction prevents accidental credential or tax ID leakage.
Academic Researchers & Archival Curators	Organizing extensive historical document corpuses, full-text searching scanned paperwork, identifying duplicate scans across deep folder trees, and reviewing metadata.	Integrated Local OCR: Tesseract integration extracts text from image-only PDFs directly into a searchable SQLite FTS index without uploading rare manuscripts to third-party servers.
Small Business Owners & Freelancers	Managing local invoice archives, client contracts, and vendor receipts across multiple quarters; batch protecting or extracting specific PDF pages for accounting.	Zero Subscription Overhead: Provides a comprehensive desktop document hub without recurring monthly SaaS fees (e.g. Adobe Acrobat / DocuWare), operating completely offline.
Power Users & Data Sovereignty Advocates	Fast, responsive file management with dark/light themes, keyboard navigation, precise control over file paths, and safe coexistence with OneDrive sync.	Placeholder Protection: ProFiler detects OneDrive cloud placeholders and refrains from forcing unwanted downloads, keeping disk usage under full user control.

Comparative Matrix & Alternatives

Feature / Dimension	ProFiler Suite	Cloud Document SaaS (DocuWare / Dropbox)	Native OS File Manager (Windows Explorer)	Heavyweight Enterprise ECM (Alfresco / Nextcloud)	Sibling Tool (KnowledgeDigest)
Architecture	100% Local-First	Cloud-Hosted SaaS	Local OS Shell	Self-Hosted Server	Local-First Hub
Network Egress	Zero-Egress	Mandatory Upload	Zero (Local Only)	Server Sync Required	Zero-Egress
Full-Text SQLite Search	Yes (FTS & Metadata)	Cloud Index Only	Basic Windows Search	Lucene/Elasticsearch	Yes (FTS5 + BM25)
Built-in OCR (Tesseract)	Yes (Offline)	Proprietary Cloud OCR	None	Optional Plugin	Text-Only Extraction
PDF Tools (Redact / Encrypt)	Yes (Integrated)	High-Tier Paid Addon	None	Third-Party Tool	None
Privacy Traffic Light (PII)	Yes (Datenschutzampel)	Enterprise DLP Addon	None	Complex Rules Engine	None
Cloud Placeholder Guard	Yes (OneDrive Aware)	Native Sync Client	Native Sync Client	Not Applicable	Basic File Access
Recurring Cost	Free & Open Source	$15–$50 / user / month	Free with OS	Hardware + Admin Costs	Free & Open Source
Primary Sweet Spot	Local Document Detective	Corporate Collaboration	Generic File Browsing	Multi-Tenant Enterprise	LLM Digest & Chunking

Feature Highlights

• Local SQLite File Index: Rapid indexing for folders, document collections, and versioned file entries.
• Full-Text Search Engine: Search across PDF, DOCX, TXT, RTF, images, spreadsheets, and source code.
• Tesseract OCR Integration: Automatic OCR workflow for scanned PDFs and image documents.
• Comprehensive PDF Workshop: Encrypt, decrypt, extract pages, redact text, and export sanitized documents.
• Cryptographic Deduplication: Fast SHA-256 fingerprinting to identify redundant duplicate files.
• Datenschutzampel (Privacy Traffic Light): Pre-flight inspection flagging sensitive numbers and PII before sharing.
• Cloud-Placeholder Awareness: Safe scanning of OneDrive libraries without triggering bulk file hydration.
• ProSync Companion Integration: Direct launcher bridge for synchronizing managed folder pairs.
• Redacted Workspace Exchange: Export and import portable workspaces via JSON Schema v1.
• Ergonomic Desktop UI: Native PySide6 interface with dark/light theme switching and system tray integration.
• Companion Utilities: Bundled SQLite database inspector (SQLiteViewer.py) and Excel file importer.

Visual Interface & Screenshot

When To Use ProFiler

ProFiler is the optimal solution when you require a private document management tool for:

• Maintaining searchable local archives of PDFs, Office documents, text files, and scanned receipts.
• Running OCR-assisted indexing across legacy document scans without third-party cloud fees.
• Detecting duplicate files and auditing version drift across deep directory structures.
• Handling PDF security operations (passwords, page extractions, redactions) in a single desktop app.
• Auditing document packages for privacy and GDPR/DSGVO compliance before sending them to external parties.
• Using a unified desktop hub alongside companion tools such as ProSync and SQLiteViewer.

Quick Start & Setup

Prerequisites & Requirements

• Python 3.10+ (tested on Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13)
• PySide6
• Tesseract OCR (optional, required for image and scanned PDF OCR)
• Poppler utilities (optional, required for PDF rendering and page conversion)

Installation & Launch

Install runtime dependencies from PyPI:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python Profiler_Suite_V15.py

On Windows, you can start the application directly via the bundled starter script:

START.bat

Windows Launcher & Build Flow

For local Windows desktop deployment, you can compile a self-contained executable:

build_exe.bat

The build requires a clean Git checkout, runs outside OneDrive in C:\_Local_DEV\codex_build\profiler, uses pinned build dependencies, and generates:

• release/ProFiler-15.0.0-win64.exe
• release/SHA256SUMS.txt
• release/BUILD-PROVENANCE.json

The build never writes into OneDrive, GitHub Releases, or a Store package. START.bat launches a local EXE only when the adjacent ProFiler.exe.sha256 matches; otherwise, a source checkout launches Profiler_Suite_V15.py.

Configuration & Local Storage

File Path	Functional Purpose
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ProFilerSuite\profiler_config.json	Active folder connections and database indexing settings
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ProFilerSuite\profiler_settings.json	UI preferences, theme selection, and optional tool paths
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ProFilerSuite\search_config.json	Configured search databases and indexing targets
*.example.json	Public, path-free configuration templates (never contain live data)

PDF passwords are session-only and are deliberately excluded from persisted settings. The Excel importer is an optional administrative utility:

python -m pip install -e ".[excel]"
python import_excel_to_profiler.py --input INPUT.xlsx --database profiler.db --output imported

Included Tools & Utilities

Tool File	Functional Description
Profiler_Suite_V15.py	Main desktop GUI application (PySide6)
ProFiler_Datenschutzampel.py	Standalone privacy traffic-light checker for PII auditing
SQLiteViewer.py	SQLite database viewer for inspecting index tables
import_excel_to_profiler.py	Command-line utility for importing existing Excel file inventories
indent_gui_checker.py	Codebase development tool for checking GUI indentation integrity

Supported File Formats & OCR

Category	File Extensions	Capabilities
Documents	.pdf, .docx, .txt, .rtf	Full-text indexing, metadata parsing, search, and preview
Images	.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .bmp	Metadata extraction, image preview, and Tesseract OCR text recognition
Spreadsheets	.xlsx, .xls, .csv	Structure inspection and metadata indexing (Excel extra available)
Other Formats	Universal fallback	Indexed by filesystem attributes, file size, timestamps, and SHA-256 hash

Sibling Ecosystem & Integrations

ProFiler Suite is an active member of the file-bricks desktop utility family under the open-bricks umbrella:

Tool	Repository	Domain / Focus	Status
ProFiler	file-bricks/ProFiler	Local document indexing, OCR, duplicate detection & privacy	Active Flagship
KnowledgeDigest	file-bricks/knowledgedigest	Portable knowledge database, FTS5 BM25 search & LLM digest	Active Flagship
PDFtoPDFocr	doc-bricks/PDFtoPDFocr	Batch OCR & searchable PDF generation engine	Active Sibling
DokuZen	doc-bricks/DokuZen	Desktop PDF workshop, format converter & security unlocker	Active Sibling
MediaBrain	doc-bricks/MediaBrain	Multi-modal media transcription & structured indexing	Active Sibling
TextBrain	doc-bricks/TextBrain	Document intelligence, semantic classification & summaries	Active Sibling
DevCenter	dev-bricks/DevCenter	Developer workspace dashboard & automation launcher	Active Sibling
CodeBox	dev-bricks/CodeBox	Offline snippet vault & code runner sandbox	Active Sibling
FileCommander MCP	ellmos-ai/ellmos-filecommander-mcp	Safe, sandboxed MCP file management & batch processing	Active Companion
CodeCommander MCP	ellmos-ai/ellmos-codecommander-mcp	MCP code intelligence, AST analysis & format repair	Active Companion
SQLite Transit Sync	dev-bricks/sqlite-transit-sync	Zero-loss multi-master SQLite replication & synchronization	Active Companion

Third-Party Licenses & Compliance

ProFiler Suite is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0-only). See LICENSE.

Because ProFiler Suite uses PyMuPDF, the application is distributed under AGPL-3.0. A complete, audited third-party dependency and license inventory covering all direct packages (PySide6, pypdf, pikepdf, Pillow, watchdog, reportlab, pytesseract) and toolchains is documented in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md (and THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt).

Windows Store distribution preparations are governed by store_package.json, STORE_LISTING.md, PRIVACY_POLICY.md, SUPPORT.md, and WINDOWS_STORE_PREP.md.

Security Policy & SLAs

ProFiler maintains a formal, bilingual security policy under SECURITY.md.

• Vulnerability Response SLA: 48-hour initial response guarantee.
• Triage & Remediation SLA: 5 business days triage and resolution timeline.
• Reporting Channels: Contact security@open-bricks.org and support@lukasgeiger.com, or open a GitHub Security Advisory.

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Discoverability Keywords

local-first file manager, desktop document manager, private document archive, OCR desktop app, PDF OCR tool, PDF redaction, document privacy checker, PySide6 file management, SQLite document index, Windows file organizer, Datenschutzampel, GDPR file review.