Installation

Add FileKit to your Kotlin Multiplatform project and set up each platform

FileKit is published on Maven Central under the io.github.vinceglb group. Add the modules you need to your shared module’s commonMain dependencies. If some of your targets aren’t supported by a module (for example filekit-dialogs on watchOS, or Compose modules on Linux and Windows native), add it to an intermediate source set instead.

Choose your modules

You want to…	Add
Show native pickers and save dialogs from Compose	filekit-dialogs-compose
Show native dialogs from ViewModels, shared logic, or non-Compose UI	filekit-dialogs
Read, write, and manage files without dialogs	filekit-core
Display a PlatformFile image with Coil 3	filekit-coil

filekit-dialogs-compose includes filekit-dialogs, which includes filekit-core.

Add the dependencies

Dialogs

FileKit can helps you to display dialogs to the user like file, directory and photo pickers, save dialogs, camera and more. FileKit dialogs are available in two flavors:

build.gradle.kts

// Enables FileKit dialogs without Compose dependencies
implementation("io.github.vinceglb:filekit-dialogs:0.17.0")

// Enables FileKit dialogs with Composable utilities
implementation("io.github.vinceglb:filekit-dialogs-compose:0.17.0")

Core only

FileKit provides a platform-agnostic file abstraction called PlatformFile. It allows you to work with files in a platform-agnostic way. You can create, read, write, and delete files using the PlatformFile API.

You can use PlatformFile in your project by adding the following dependency:

build.gradle.kts

implementation("io.github.vinceglb:filekit-core:0.17.0")

Coil

build.gradle.kts

implementation("io.github.vinceglb:filekit-coil:0.17.0")

See Coil to register PlatformFile support in your ImageLoader.

Supported targets

Platform	Kotlin targets
Android	Android, minSdk 24
iOS	iosArm64, iosSimulatorArm64
macOS	macosArm64
JVM desktop	jvm (JVM 17) on Windows, macOS, and Linux
Linux native	linuxX64, linuxArm64 (core and dialogs)
Windows native	mingwX64 (core and dialogs)
watchOS	watchosArm64, watchosDeviceArm64, watchosSimulatorArm64 (core only)
Web	js, wasmJs (browser)

Not every feature exists on every platform. Check the platform support matrix before calling an API from commonMain.

Platform setup

Most targets need no setup. Do these steps once per app:

Platform	filekit-core	filekit-dialogs	filekit-dialogs-compose
Android	Automatic (App Startup)	FileKit.init(activity) in your activity	Automatic for launchers. FileKit.init(activity) if you also call suspend dialog APIs
JVM desktop	FileKit.init(appId) for app directories	None, plus jdk.security.auth on Linux	Same as dialogs
Linux native	FileKit.init(appId) for app directories	None, plus libdbus-1	Not available
Windows native	FileKit.init(appId) for app directories	None	Not available
iOS, macOS, JS, Wasm	None	None	None
watchOS	None	Not available	Not available

The setup pages explain each step:

Core setup

Application ID, custom directories, ProGuard rules, and manual Android initialization.

Dialogs setup

Android activity registration, Linux packaging, and D-Bus on Linux native.

Some features need extra platform configuration, such as a FileProvider to share or open files on Android. Each feature page lists what it needs.

Next steps

• Follow the Quickstart to pick and read your first file.
• Learn the PlatformFile API.
• Set up your AI assistant with the FileKit docs.