[bryantgillespie]

Why

Team feedback: public read on directus_files exposes every file through /files and /assets. The skills had the folder-scoped recipe and the trap, but not the house rules around it, and they didn't say what happens on the core tier.

What

directus-access-control (recipes, router trap)

• Two setups, both documented. Public API (browsers call Directus, the public policy grants scoped reads) or server-side only (backend-for-frontend: frontend server routes call Directus with a server token). A table gives when to pick each and what it costs. Either way, expose the fewest collections and fields.
• Assets usually stay direct in both setups: serve them from /assets so image bytes don't go through, and get billed on, the frontend server.
• One public folder, with subfolders at most two levels deep. The rule now covers the folder and its direct children: {"_or":[{"folder":{"_eq":"<id>"}},{"folder":{"parent":{"_eq":"<id>"}}}]}. Match the folder by id.
• Short field list for public files (id,title,description,type,filesize,width,height). * exposes uploaded_by, filename_disk, and metadata, and photo EXIF can include GPS.
• Core tier: neither the folder rule nor a field list is allowed, so public file read means every file. Only do it if nothing private goes in the File Library; otherwise proxy assets or license the instance.

directus-content-modeling

• Public-facing file fields set options.folder to the public folder (the file, file-image, and files interfaces all support it), so uploads don't 403 on the live site.

directus

• /assets note points to the scoped recipe.

Changeset: minor.

Verified against v12.5.1

• directus_files.folder → directus_folders and directus_folders.parent → directus_folders (packages/system-data/src/relations/relations.yaml).
• /assets checks read access on the file and serves it with any allowed field list (api/src/services/assets.ts).
• Folder option exists on file, file-image, and files interfaces.
• node scripts/validate.mjs --strict: 0 errors, 0 warnings.

The two-level folder rule couldn't be exercised end to end here: the eval instance is unlicensed, and core rejects custom rules.