File Naming, reloaded
Why a file-naming scheme makes your knowledge faster to find, safer to trust and easier to audit
- You know DIN 5008, SemVer and ISO 8601 and which scheme suits which domain. ·· Success criterion: You sort 5 fictional files into the right scheme without error.
- You name a file to convention in under 30 seconds. ·· Success criterion: Stopwatch test with 5 example files.
- You plan a migration sweep for 100 existing files. ·· Success criterion: You deliver a mini-plan with scheme, pilot team and cut-over date.
Why this matters now
We have crossed the line where file names stop serving the person and start blocking them. Cloud sync, AI search and compliance audits now treat the file name like an API — not like a sticky note.
The rules
YYYY-MM-DD at the front turns your file explorer into a timeline. ISO 8601 sorts alphabetically and chronologically at once — for free.
One word, not a sentence. The scheme decides the order, not the length.
_v01, _v02 — two digits, starting at 01. Saves you the sorting bugs that bite from v10 onwards.
Status tags like _DRAFT, _REVIEW, _FINAL only when the workflow forces it. Otherwise they just clutter the eye.
Lower-case the convention. Cloud storage sometimes ignores upper and lower case — and you should not have to know when.
Before / after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Quote Acme Ltd REVISED 2 (copy)_FINAL_now_really.docx | 2026-05-01_quote_acme_v03.docx |
Which scheme for which use case
- DIN 5008 (S1/S2): office, contracts, quotes, reporting.
- SemVer (S6): APIs, SDKs, software releases — MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.
- ISO 8601 + time (S3): logs, capture streams, telemetry.
- GAMP 5 (S5): regulated systems (pharma, medical devices).
- Logseq convention (S11): personal knowledge vaults with Git.
- SemVer
- Semantic Versioning — MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. MAJOR = breaking, MINOR = feature, PATCH = bugfix. The standard for APIs, because machines can reason about the order of the numbers.
# Example migration for a directory
for f in *.docx; do
mv "$f" "$(date -I)_${f// /_}"
doneThe human side
The most common cause of failure is not the wrong scheme but the missing example from the top. If the leadership team keeps sending “xyzFINAL.docx”, the team learns that the convention is optional.
A file-naming convention is 30% standard and 70% discipline.
Done in three weeks
- Week 1: decide the scheme (one workshop, 90 minutes).
- Week 2: pilot in a single team — old files live on, new ones follow the rule.
- Week 3: organisation-wide roll-out with a short cheat sheet (one PDF page).
- Take the ten files you saved most recently from your office drive and rename them to scheme S2 — date up front as YYYY-MM-DD, one keyword in a single word, version in two digits from _v01. Move the original into the archive rather than deleting it. At the end, note how long each file took you.⏱ 5 min
💡 Sort the folder by modified date first — then you spot at once which “FINAL_FINAL” duplicates are really the same file in two states, and you name them _v01 and _v02 instead of two riddles.
Model answer: “Quote Acme Ltd REVISED 2 (copy)_FINAL_now_really.docx” becomes “2026-05-01_quote_acme_v03.docx”. The date sits up front as YYYY-MM-DD and sorts chronologically as well as alphabetically, the keyword “quote” is one lower-case word, the modifier “acme” stays short, and the version “_v03” is two digits. The first file may cost thirty seconds; by the fifth you are under ten — the pattern has stuck.
Which of the following is rule #1 under DIN 5008 / S2?
What is SemVer best suited to?
How should file names handle upper and lower case?
Bring your knowledge into shape.
Give your knowledge a name you can find again. Your second brain holds the convention so you do not have to — a partner, not a filing cabinet.
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