File Naming

These days we're typically not responsible for naming task files — assigned work usually lives in WebKnossos or Google Drive and is named for you. This convention still matters for your own experiments and exports, and reflects how VAST-era files were named.

When naming a file, keep three things in mind: the project name, the type of work the file contains, and the volume it belongs to. Spaces aren't allowed, so join the parts with underscores — spaces and special characters trip up some tools (Python scripts, for instance), and operating systems disagree on path syntax (Windows separates folders with \, Linux and macOS with /):

Project_Type_Volume_Any-other-relevant-info

For example, a synaptic annotation file for Vol. 30 in the Pinky project is named Pinky_Synapses_Vol.30. For projects without a settled naming protocol, add any other relevant information to the end of the name.

Duplicates, practice & experiments

When multiple copies of a file exist (experimenting without overwriting the output, or several people training on the same set), include the tracer's name and a word indicating practice or experiment — for example Pinky_Annotation_vol.202_Ben_Experiment. Save all practice/experiment sets and saved-state duplicates in the project's Archive folder, and clean up once the task is complete so each file lives in the right place.

The Archive folder here is really a mental model for good file hygiene rather than a required location. It began as a local folder inside each volume's directory back when we downloaded volumes locally (the VAST era). Now that assigned work stays in Google Drive or WebKnossos and is rarely downloaded, this mostly applies to your own experiments and exports — keep a named folder structure you understand and tidy up after yourself. For ~99% of assigned tasks you won't need local storage at all.

Type abbreviations

Type	Name
Raw EM	EM
Semantic Annotation	Seg
Synaptic Annotation	Synapses
Vesicles	Vesicles
Mitochondria	Mito
Semantic Labeling	Semantic Labeling
Blood Vessels	Blood Vessels

Examples

Type	Info	Name	Folder
Semantic Annotation	Pinky Volume 24, completed by Ben	Pinky_vol.24_seg_Ben	Cell_Segmentation
Synapses	AIBS Volume 19, stitched set	AIBS_vol.19_synapses_stitched	PSD/Synapses
Mitochondria	Allen Volume 06, Merlin practice	Allen_vol.06_Mito_MM_practice	Mitochondria
Vesicles	AIBS Volume 22	AIBS_vol.22_vesicles	Vesicles/Vesicle Cloud

Note: Omni files are an exception — they are automatically named after the project title, so there's no need to create duplicates.