# Access Files > Learn how to access uploaded files, authenticate, provide optional filenames and directly download them. Folders and file information are stored in regular collections, which means [user and role access permissions](/guides/auth/access-control) are fully configurable and granular on both folders and files. The location of your actual file originals is based on the project's configuration, but you can consistently access them via the API using the following URL: ```text https://example.com/assets/ https://example.com/assets/1ac73658-8b62-4dea-b6da-529fbc9d01a4 ``` ## Authentication Directus leverages stored cookies to authenticate when accessing files, when present. If no cookie is stored, you can use the `access_token` query parameter to authenticate, provided the token belongs to a user with the required access to read the file. ## SEO You can provide an optional filename after the UUID to optimize for SEO, for example: ```text https://example.com/assets// https://example.com/assets/1ac73658-8b62-4dea-b6da-529fbc9d01a4/directus-logo.png ``` This optional filename is also used in the `Content-Disposition` header when the `?download` query parameter is used. **Direct File Access** While you may *technically* be able to expose your storage adapters root file system and access your raw files through there, it is recommended that you always use the Directus API. This is the only way that you can take advantage of file permissions and other built-in features. ## Downloading a File To download an asset with the correct filename, you need to add the `?download` query parameter to the request and the `download` attribute to your anchor tag. This will ensure the appropriate [Content-Disposition](https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec19.html) headers are added. Without this, the download will work on the *same* domain, however it will have the file's "id" as the filename for cross-origin requests. Fetching transformed assets is done by adding a `key` query parameter to the original file's URL. In the Data Studio, you can configure different asset presets that control the output of any given image. If a requested transformed asset doesn't yet exist, it is dynamically generated and immediately returned.