Hiding and Unhiding a File or Folder

The hide-file, unhide-file, hide-folder, and unhide-folder commands let you toggle whether a file or folder entity is flagged as hidden, without touching its data or metadata otherwise. Hiding writes a new metadata revision with an isHidden flag set to true; clients that respect this flag (e.g. the ArDrive web/desktop apps) omit the entity from their normal drive listings, while it remains fully present on-chain. Unhiding writes another revision flipping the flag back to false.

Some important things to know:

• Reversible. Hiding never deletes or re-uploads data -- it's a metadata-only toggle, and unhide-file/unhide-folder fully restores visibility at any time.
• Works on both public and private entities. Pass --drive-key or (--wallet-file/--seed-phrase plus --unsafe-drive-password) to target a private file/folder; omit them to target a public one, exactly like rename-file/rename-folder.
• Costs a small metadata fee. Like a rename, hiding/unhiding writes a new metadata revision to Arweave, so it isn't free, but it's the same tiny metadata-only cost as any other rename/move operation -- no file data is re-uploaded.
• Not recursive. Hiding a folder flags only that folder's own metadata; it does not walk its contents and hide child files/folders individually.

ardrive hide-file --file-id "290a3f9a-37b2-4f0f-a899-6fac983833b3" -w "/path/to/wallet.json"

ardrive unhide-file --file-id "290a3f9a-37b2-4f0f-a899-6fac983833b3" -w "/path/to/wallet.json"

ardrive hide-file --file-id "290a3f9a-37b2-4f0f-a899-6fac983833b3" -w "/path/to/wallet.json" --unsafe-drive-password "p4ssw0rd"

ardrive hide-folder --folder-id "568d5eba-dbf3-4a49-8129-1c58f7fd35bc" -w "/path/to/wallet.json"

ardrive unhide-folder --folder-id "568d5eba-dbf3-4a49-8129-1c58f7fd35bc" -w "/path/to/wallet.json" --drive-key "base64EncodedDriveKey"

Like other write commands, hide-file/unhide-file/hide-folder/unhide-folder support --dry-run, --boost, --turbo/--turbo-url, and --gateway. See ardrive hide-file --help (and unhide-file/hide-folder/unhide-folder --help) for the full flag list.