Sloth-Sorter: Command Line Tool.

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady

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What I Built

Sloth Sorter is a command-line tool. It sorts and renames the files in your Downloads folder. A small AI model on your own computer does the work. No file leaves your machine.

Example: bill_oct.pdf becomes Documents/Bills/2026-10_Electricity-Bill.pdf.

Many AI organizers upload your bank statements, IDs, and resumes to a server you do not control. Sloth does not. Anyone with a messy Downloads folder can set it up once and stop sorting by hand.

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Demo

$ sloth plan --folder ~/Downloads
Plan: 14 files
  bill_oct.pdf  ->  Documents/Bills/2026-10_Electricity-Bill.pdf
  setup.exe     ->  Installers/setup.exe
2 files need review. Nothing has changed yet.

$ sloth run --folder ~/Downloads --yes
14 files tidied. 2 need review.

$ sloth undo --last 3
Put 3 files back.

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Code

github.com/DhirajB05/sloth-sorter

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How I Built It

Open-source parts

• Ollama runs the model on my computer.
• Qwen2.5 3B is the default model. It runs on CPU. You can swap it for Llama 3.2 3B or another model with one line in sloth.toml.
• Python tools: watchdog, typer, pydantic, pypdf, python-docx, SQLite.

How it works

1. Watch the folder for new files.
2. Wait until the file is fully downloaded (size and time stay the same for 3 seconds).
3. Read the first 1,500 characters of the file.
4. Ask the model for a category and a clean name. Ollama must reply in a fixed JSON format. Pydantic checks the reply.
5. Make sure the new path stays inside the folder.
6. Move the file. Save the move in a SQLite log.

Fallbacks

If Ollama is off, Sloth sorts by file extension. If the model is not sure, the file goes to Needs Review.

Safety rules

• Sloth never deletes or overwrites a file. A name clash gets a number: file (2).pdf.
• Sloth ignores partial downloads (.crdownload, .part, .tmp).
• Sloth only talks to localhost. A test fails if any other network call happens.
• Every move can be undone with sloth undo.

Limits

• The model makes mistakes. Example: [one real wrong result].
• Sloth does not read images. It uses only the file name.
• Scanned PDFs have no text, so the model has little to read.

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Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

• Privacy: your files stay on your disk. A closed API needs an upload for each file.
• Offline: it works with no internet. [I tested with Wi-Fi off: result.]
• Cost: it costs nothing to run after install. A closed API charges for each call.
• Swap models: I compared two models by changing one config line. A closed API gives you the model the vendor chooses.
• Control: I set my own folders and naming rules in a config file.