Data Explorer

Modelled on Premiere Pro's Media Browser. Browse a folder tree, preview a dataset, read its metadata, then bring it into the project.

• Browse and preview: folder tree, file list and a preview with a live thumbnail, a Metadata tab and the first 50 rows of the Attributes tab. GeoPackages, KML, geodatabases and Excel files expand to pick layers.
• Search: results appear as you type, ranked, with a Why it matched column. A background index of layers, fields, CRS and extent finds a layer inside a geodatabase or a column inside a GeoPackage. Supports OR, -word, "phrases", wildcards and filters such as type:raster, crs:32648, size>100mb, modified:7d. Ctrl+F searches, F1 shows the syntax.
• Ingest: copy a dataset with its sidecar files, or convert it — vectors to GeoPackage, FlatGeobuf, Shapefile, GeoJSON or Parquet; rasters to Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF or tiled GeoTIFF — with optional reprojection to the project CRS. Presets can be saved and shared as JSON.
• Proxies: build overviews and a low-resolution proxy for big rasters without touching the original, and toggle between proxy and full resolution.
• Interpret: override CRS, encoding, NoData, feature filter and layer name, or set the CSV delimiter and X/Y or WKT columns, with a preview.
• Bins: group layers by type, by folder or your own; Import Folder as Bin mirrors sub-folders.
• Background work: ingest runs as a cancellable QGIS task. Provenance is written to the layer's metadata history.

• The original data is never modified.
• The search index lives in the QGIS profile and re-reads only files that changed.