Documentation
Jan Data Folder

Jan Data Folder

Jan stores your data locally in JSON format. Your data is yours alone.

Open Jan Data Folder

Via Jan:

  1. Settings () > Advanced Settings
  2. Click

Open Jan Data Folder


Via Terminal:


# Windows
cd %APPDATA%/Jan/data
# Mac
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Jan/data
# Linux
cd $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Jan/data # Custom install
cd ~/.config/Jan/data # Default install

Directory Structure

Root directory: ~/jan


/assistants/
/jan/
assistant.json
/engines/
/llama.cpp/
/extensions/
extensions.json
/@janhq/
/assistant-extension/
/conversational-extension/
/download-extension/
/engine-management-extension/
/hardware-management-extension/
/inference-cortex-extension/
/model-extension/
/files/
/logs/
app.log
/models/
/huggingface.co/
/Model_Provider_A/
/Model_A
model_A.gguf
model_A.yaml
/threads/
/thread_A/
messages.jsonl
thread.json

assistants/

Where AI personalities live. The default one (/assistants/jan/):


{
"avatar": "👋",
"id": "jan",
"object": "assistant",
"created_at": 1750945742.536,
"name": "Jan",
"description": "Jan is a helpful AI assistant that can use tools and help complete tasks for its users.",
"model": "*",
"instructions": "You have access to a set of tools to help you answer the user’s question. You can use only one tool per message, and you’ll receive the result of that tool in the user’s next response. To complete a task, use tools step by step—each step should be guided by the outcome of the previous one.\nTool Usage Rules:\n1. Always provide the correct values as arguments when using tools. Do not pass variable names—use actual values instead.\n2. You may perform multiple tool steps to complete a task.\n3. Avoid repeating a tool call with exactly the same parameters to prevent infinite loops.",
"tools": [
{
"type": "retrieval",
"enabled": false,
"useTimeWeightedRetriever": false,
"settings": {
"top_k": 2,
"chunk_size": 1024,
"chunk_overlap": 64,
"retrieval_template": "Use the following pieces of context to answer the question at the end.\n----------------\nCONTEXT: {CONTEXT}\n----------------\nQUESTION: {QUESTION}\n----------------\nHelpful Answer:"
}
}
],
"file_ids": []
}

Parameters:

ParameterDescriptionTypeDefault
idAssistant identifierstringjan
avatarAssistant imagestringNone
objectOpenAI API compatibility markerstringNone
created_atCreation timestampstringNone
nameDisplay namestringJan
descriptionRole descriptionstringDefault
modelAllowed models (* = all)string*
instructionsDefault thread instructionsstringNone
file_idsOpenAI compatibility fieldstringNone
toolsAvailable tools (retrieval only currently)arrayretrieval
typeTool typestringretrieval
enabledTool statusbooleantrue
useTimeWeightedRetrieverTime-weighted retrieval togglebooleanfalse
settingsTool configurationobjectNone
top_kMax retrieval resultsnumber2
chunk_sizeText chunk sizenumber1024
chunk_overlapChunk overlap amountnumber64
retrieval_templateResponse format templatestringNone

extensions/

Add-on central. Organization extensions live in @janhq/, solo ones in root.

logs/

Debugging headquarters (/logs/app.txt):

  • [APP]: Core logs
  • [SERVER]: API drama
  • [SPECS]: Hardware confessions

models/

The silicon brain collection. Each model has its own model.json.

Full parameters: here

threads/

Chat archive. Each thread (/threads/jan_unixstamp/) contains:

  • messages.jsonl:

{
"completed_at": 0,
"content": [
{
"text": {
"annotations": [],
"value": "Hello! I can help you with various tasks. I can search for information on the internet, including news, videos, images, shopping, and more. I can also scrape webpages to extract specific information. Let me know what you need!"
},
"type": "text"
}
],
"created_at": 1751012639307,
"id": "01JYR7S0JB5ZBGMJV52KWMW5VW",
"metadata": {
"assistant": {
"avatar": "👋",
"id": "jan",
"instructions": "You have access to a set of tools to help you answer the user's question. You can use only one tool per message, and you'll receive the result of that tool in the user's next response. To complete a task, use tools step by step—each step should be guided by the outcome of the previous one.\nTool Usage Rules:\n1. Always provide the correct values as arguments when using tools. Do not pass variable names—use actual values instead.\n2. You may perform multiple tool steps to complete a task.\n3. Avoid repeating a tool call with exactly the same parameters to prevent infinite loops.",
"name": "Jan",
"parameters": ""
},
"tokenSpeed": {
"lastTimestamp": 1751012637097,
"message": "01JYR7S0GW5M9PSHMRE7T8VQJM",
"tokenCount": 49,
"tokenSpeed": 22.653721682847895
}
},
"object": "thread.message",
"role": "assistant",
"status": "ready",
"thread_id": "8f2c9922-db49-4d1e-8620-279c05baf2d0",
"type": "text"
}

  • thread.json:
ParameterDescription
assistantsAssistant configuration clone
createdCreation timestamp
idThread identifier
metadataAdditional thread data
modelActive model settings
objectOpenAI compatibility marker
titleThread name
updatedUpdated timestamp

Delete Jan Data

Uninstall guides: Mac, Windows, or Linux.