diff --git a/boot/boot.js b/boot/boot.js
index 969a8c567..456cceb14 100644
--- a/boot/boot.js
+++ b/boot/boot.js
@@ -1824,7 +1824,7 @@ $tw.loadTiddlersFromSpecification = function(filepath,excludeRegExp) {
 	// Read the specification
 	var filesInfo = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(filepath + path.sep + "tiddlywiki.files","utf8"));
 	// Helper to process a file
-	var processFile = function(filename,isTiddlerFile,fields) {
+	var processFile = function(filename,isTiddlerFile,fields,isEditableFile) {
 		var extInfo = $tw.config.fileExtensionInfo[path.extname(filename)],
 			type = (extInfo || {}).type || fields.type || "text/plain",
 			typeInfo = $tw.config.contentTypeInfo[type] || {},
@@ -1877,7 +1877,11 @@ $tw.loadTiddlersFromSpecification = function(filepath,excludeRegExp) {
 				}
 			});
 		});
-		tiddlers.push({tiddlers: fileTiddlers});
+		if(isEditableFile) {
+			tiddlers.push({filepath: pathname, hasMetaFile: !!metadata && !isTiddlerFile, tiddlers: fileTiddlers});
+		} else {
+			tiddlers.push({tiddlers: fileTiddlers});
+		}
 	};
 	// Process the listed tiddlers
 	$tw.utils.each(filesInfo.tiddlers,function(tidInfo) {
@@ -1907,7 +1911,7 @@ $tw.loadTiddlersFromSpecification = function(filepath,excludeRegExp) {
 			for(var t=0; t<files.length; t++) {
 				var filename = files[t];
 				if(filename !== "tiddlywiki.files" && !metaRegExp.test(filename) && fileRegExp.test(filename)) {
-					processFile(dirPath + path.sep + filename,dirSpec.isTiddlerFile,dirSpec.fields);
+					processFile(dirPath + path.sep + filename,dirSpec.isTiddlerFile,dirSpec.fields,dirSpec.isEditableFile);
 				}
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/nodejs/tiddlywiki.files_Files.tid b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/nodejs/tiddlywiki.files_Files.tid
index 294c8f260..59c9a679d 100644
--- a/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/nodejs/tiddlywiki.files_Files.tid
+++ b/editions/tw5.com/tiddlers/nodejs/tiddlywiki.files_Files.tid
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ Directory specifications in the `directories` array may take the following forms
 ** ''path'' - (required) the absolute or relative path to the directory containing the tiddler files (relative paths are interpreted relative to the path of the `tiddlywiki.files` file). Note that the directory is not recursively searched; sub-directories are ignored
 ** ''filesRegExp'' - (optional) a [[regular expression|https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions]] that matches the filenames of the files that should be processed within the directory
 ** ''isTiddlerFile'' - (required) if `true`, the file will be treated as a [[tiddler file|TiddlerFiles]] and deserialised to extract the tiddlers. Otherwise, the raw content of the file is assigned to the `text` field without any parsing
+** ''isEditableFile'' - (optional) if `true`, changes to the tiddler be saved back to the original file. <<.from-version "5.1.23">>
 ** ''fields'' - (required) an object containing values that override or customise the fields provided in the tiddler file (see above)
 
 Fields can be overridden for particular files by creating a file with the same name plus the suffix `.meta` -- see TiddlerFiles.