Every release,
and what it could not do.

A changelog, not a highlight reel.

Each entry ends with the limits of that build rather than only what was added, because the useful question about a release is usually what it still could not do. The checksum and the source commit are on every one.

Read what Finder++ does today

The list columns

  • Date Created, Date Last Opened, Date Added, Kind, Version, Comments, Tags, Shared By and Last Edited By join Name, Date Modified and Size. Right-click the header to show or hide them; every one sorts.
  • Drag a header to reorder the columns (Name stays first), drag an edge to resize, or double-click an edge to fit that column to what it shows. Size All Columns to Fit does every shown column.
  • Order, widths and which columns show are remembered per folder in its .DS_Store, as Finder does; Use as Defaults sets them for folders Finder has not recorded.
  • Name is the flexible column: a remembered width can no longer push Date Modified and Size out of view.

Known limits in 1.4.0

  • Items moved to the Trash with a password have no Undo and no Put Back, because putting one back would need the password again; only items on the same disk as your Trash are moved this way.
  • A change made inside an opened folder by another app shows after the next reload (⌘R, or any file operation here); only the folder on screen is watched.
  • Opening everything stops after 10,000 entries and never enters a link to a folder. Typing in the toolbar field looks inside the folders that are open, not the ones that are closed.
  • In Recents and in search results the list is flat: there is no folder to open there.
  • The Get Info window shows what was true when it opened; it does not update while the file changes, and the name, comment and default app cannot be edited from it — only Locked.
  • In the terminal ⌃V always pastes, so a program that uses it itself (nano, vim in insert mode) no longer receives it.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • Folder settings from Finder are read for the view mode, the sort and the list columns only; icon size and window position are not used. Date Last Opened is the file’s access time, not Spotlight’s, and Shared By and Last Edited By show only for items shared through iCloud; and a .DS_Store this app does not understand is left untouched. Writing is checked against copies of real files, not yet watched by Finder itself.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk imagef137ca2d0e2335ee1948ad82d153bbd4dbeb1ba4a66997c3ae73ae83b664125a

Built from commit 656ee8b22eff558281dbe4300bcabf5c216a5037

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Folders

  • A folder opens in the view mode and list sort Finder remembered for it, read from its .DS_Store. Changing either here is written back for Finder to see; everything else in the file is kept. A switch in Settings turns it off.

The sidebar

  • Pictures, Movies and Music join Desktop, Documents and Downloads in Favorites.
  • Every mounted disk, disk image and share has an eject button.
  • The folders in the sidebar start closed instead of opened down to where the window begins.

Known limits in 1.3.0

  • Items moved to the Trash with a password have no Undo and no Put Back, because putting one back would need the password again; only items on the same disk as your Trash are moved this way.
  • A change made inside an opened folder by another app shows after the next reload (⌘R, or any file operation here); only the folder on screen is watched.
  • Opening everything stops after 10,000 entries and never enters a link to a folder. Typing in the toolbar field looks inside the folders that are open, not the ones that are closed.
  • In Recents and in search results the list is flat: there is no folder to open there.
  • The Get Info window shows what was true when it opened; it does not update while the file changes, and the name, comment and default app cannot be edited from it — only Locked.
  • In the terminal ⌃V always pastes, so a program that uses it itself (nano, vim in insert mode) no longer receives it.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • Folder settings from Finder are read for the view mode and the Name, Date and Size sorts only; icon size, columns and window position are not used, and a .DS_Store this app does not understand is left untouched. Writing is checked against copies of real files, not yet watched by Finder itself.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk imagecec0222e3497e4bdec0a23ade9ab22b7b4e944e6a1b73f1b27d24b939edd6906

Built from commit ac38868342dc7ce6683b841177d1a7b461192962

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The list

  • A fourth toolbar button, beside the other three, closes the deepest open level: every open folder with no open folder inside it closes, so each press folds the tree back up one level.

Known limits in 1.2.1

  • Items moved to the Trash with a password have no Undo and no Put Back, because putting one back would need the password again; only items on the same disk as your Trash are moved this way.
  • A change made inside an opened folder by another app shows after the next reload (⌘R, or any file operation here); only the folder on screen is watched.
  • Opening everything stops after 10,000 entries and never enters a link to a folder. Typing in the toolbar field looks inside the folders that are open, not the ones that are closed.
  • In Recents and in search results the list is flat: there is no folder to open there.
  • The Get Info window shows what was true when it opened; it does not update while the file changes, and the name, comment and default app cannot be edited from it — only Locked.
  • In the terminal ⌃V always pastes, so a program that uses it itself (nano, vim in insert mode) no longer receives it.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk image474247c470def0f6002d9f4a094493db0b0ac98f0fa1f1d1bd27eae35cac05d7

Built from commit abac7bfc0a253c1ebe1ec9441482c6695d1aabde

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The list

  • Folders open in place. In the List view every folder has a disclosure triangle: → opens it, ← closes it, and what you open is read when you open it.
  • Three buttons beside Back and Forward act on every folder showing: close them all, open one more level, or open them all and everything inside them. Opening everything is read in the background and stops at 10,000 entries, with a note on the status line.
  • Selecting a folder along with what is inside it (⌘A with folders open, say) acts on the folder, so Move to Trash does not fail on contents it has already taken.

Finding

  • The filter looks inside the folders you have open. While you type in the toolbar field, the list shows what matches in the folder and in every opened folder, with the open folders that lead to a match. Return settles on the plain filter of the folder’s own items.
  • Folders you had open stay open while you type, and come back open when you clear the field.

Move to Trash

  • Items that are not yours ask for your password, as Finder does: a root-owned app the App Store installed, say. One system prompt covers everything refused that way in the selection, and the item goes to your own Trash.

The icon

  • A redrawn app icon: Apple’s tile shape and lighting, and a light folder that stands out from the blue and holds up at small sizes.

Known limits in 1.2.0

  • Items moved to the Trash with a password have no Undo and no Put Back, because putting one back would need the password again; only items on the same disk as your Trash are moved this way.
  • A change made inside an opened folder by another app shows after the next reload (⌘R, or any file operation here); only the folder on screen is watched.
  • Opening everything stops after 10,000 entries and never enters a link to a folder. Typing in the toolbar field looks inside the folders that are open, not the ones that are closed.
  • In Recents and in search results the list is flat: there is no folder to open there.
  • The Get Info window shows what was true when it opened; it does not update while the file changes, and the name, comment and default app cannot be edited from it — only Locked.
  • In the terminal ⌃V always pastes, so a program that uses it itself (nano, vim in insert mode) no longer receives it.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk image68b33c65dad986afb95e561932fc21b272e4cfe18777c7ebdc9223b8af27dfcd

Built from commit f6080407a84bf43206950c124254a5476bb4e7c0

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Information

  • Get Info (⌘I) opens a window in Finder’s sections: General, More Info, Name & Extension, Comments, Open With, Preview and Sharing & Permissions. Sections fold away and stay folded; Locked works; a folder’s size fills in while it is measured; several items get one window that sums them up.
  • Selecting something shows a card under the sidebar with its kind, exact size, dates, permissions, owner and default app, or, for several, the counts, commonest kinds, total size and date range.

The terminal

  • Copy and paste work. ⌘C, ⌘V and ⌘A reach the terminal instead of acting on the selected files, and right-click offers Copy, Paste and Select All.
  • ⌃C and ⌃X copy while text is selected and otherwise reach the shell, so ⌃C still interrupts a command. ⌃V pastes; ⌘X copies.
  • Reopening a hidden terminal after browsing elsewhere takes the shell to the folder on screen, when it is at its prompt.
  • The terminal and agent panels now switch palette when macOS switches between light and dark.

The sidebar

  • The tree follows the file views: it opens down to the folder on screen, at launch too, and folds back up what it opened for the previous one.
  • Fixed: expanding folders stopped a level or two down once a second window or tab had been opened.
  • Fixed: the sidebar widened along with the window. The file list now takes the extra room.

Also fixed

  • The space bar opens Quick Look again.
  • Renaming a file in light mode no longer shows white text on a white field.
  • ⌃C copies files, alongside ⌃X and ⌃V.

Known limits in 1.1.0

  • The Get Info window shows what was true when it opened; it does not update while the file changes, and the name, comment and default app cannot be edited from it — only Locked.
  • In the terminal ⌃V always pastes, so a program that uses it itself (nano, vim in insert mode) no longer receives it.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk image83d764c5ddff1a834ece01c53d515fe1c815425760b6e56dffcbb3d956ead3ef

Built from commit 74a29f57b45a3286bcd34f1c5a1bdfd7fca3a645

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Safer file operations

  • Moving or copying onto a name that is already there now asks: Keep Both, Replace, Skip or Stop, with Apply to All. Replace puts the old version in the Trash and remembers where, so Help ▸ Find Previous Versions can find it again after a relaunch.
  • A move to another disk now copies first, checks the copy, and only then removes the original. If a drive is unplugged or full midway, the original is still where it was.
  • When an operation only partly succeeds, a sheet lists what was completed, skipped, failed and not attempted. Items you cut but did not move stay cut.
  • Undo covers copy, duplicate, compress, Make Alias and Move to Trash as well as move, rename and new folder. If you changed an item after creating it, undo asks before touching it.
  • Choosing a tag colour no longer removes a file’s other tags, and failures are reported by file name.

Windows and tabs

  • New Window (⌘N) and New Tab (⌘T). Each window and tab has its own folder, history, selection, search, view and terminal panes; Favorites are shared.
  • Open in New Tab / New Window from the sidebar, the path bar and the right-click menu. Your windows and tabs come back when you reopen the app, and a folder or drive that is gone is replaced by the nearest place that still exists, with a note.

Everyday file management

  • Show Preview (⇧⌘P) puts a side pane next to the list or column view with a large preview and the name, kind, size and date of what is selected. Show Package Contents opens an app or bundle as a folder.
  • Dragging works in every view: Option copies, Command moves, a drag within a disk moves and to another disk copies, and hovering over a folder opens it (not in the column view). Command-drag did nothing in earlier builds.
  • Rename Multiple Items… previews every new name and flags conflicts before anything changes.
  • Put Back and Empty Trash… for items you trashed from this app, including the Trash a disk keeps for itself. Empty Trash says exactly what it will delete.
  • iCloud: Download Now, and Remove Download only for files iCloud already has in full. The status line says when a selected file is not downloaded and updates when the download ends.
  • The status line says when the toolbar field is filtering by name and when a search hit its result limit.

Drives, servers and settings

  • Mounted disks are listed internal first, then external, then network; right-click one to Eject it. File ▸ Connect to Server… (⌘K) hands an smb, afp, nfs, ftp, http(s) or vnc address to macOS.
  • Settings (⌘,): reopen your windows and tabs, open Home or a chosen folder at launch; icon size; which list columns show; automatic update checks. Access shows whether Full Disk Access is on and opens the right pane in System Settings; nothing asks for it on its own.
  • Finder’s Smart Folders appear under Smart Folders in the sidebar, and File ▸ Save Search as Smart Folder… saves the current search where Finder keeps them.
  • The terminal’s colours now meet a 4.5 : 1 contrast ratio against its background in both light and dark appearances.

Known limits in 1.0.0

  • The first real update through the in-place installer is the one from 0.8.0 to this version. The installer has been tested against temporary copies; versions before 0.8.0 install an update by hand, once.
  • Drives and servers were tried against disk images and a local SMB share, not yet against a NAS, another computer or a physical external drive.
  • The app has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access, and has not been run by hand on an Intel Mac or on macOS 14 itself; the automated tests do pass on macOS 14 and 15.
  • Undo history lasts for the session, and each window has its own. Put Back cannot see items Finder trashed (macOS keeps their original location to itself), and listing your own Trash needs Full Disk Access.
  • Copying a folder that contains ._* files to an exFAT drive can fail with “File exists”; the folder stays where it was and the result sheet names it.
  • Search results, Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders: capped, read-only, and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • Dragging a file from Finder into the app was not completed in testing; the other direction, and copy and paste both ways, were.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk image26489d47ed5f95f26028a8917056b3dd9b3b7d2aadd833d1ec403ac3ee30a651

Built from commit 390865c3aa4a8196c7128e370dc7d279a471c08c

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Hidden files

  • Hidden files are shown by default, so .env, .gitignore and the rest are in the folder listing without a shortcut. View ▸ Show Hidden Files (⇧⌘.) turns them off again, and the choice is remembered. If you had already set it either way, your choice stands.

Mounted disks

  • The sidebar’s Locations now lists every mounted volume under Macintosh HD and iCloud Drive: a disk image you have opened, a USB drive, a network share. The list follows mounting, ejecting and renaming as they happen.

Updates

  • The update button now ends in Restart. Once the download has passed its checksum and signature checks, one press checks the app inside the disk image again, swaps it in for the running copy and reopens it — no opening the image and dragging.
  • If the app cannot replace itself, for instance because it is running from a read-only place, it opens the disk image as before. If you cancel the quit, nothing is swapped.

Known limits in 0.8.0

  • Versions before 0.8.0 still install an update by hand, once: only this version knows how to swap itself in. The in-place install has not yet run against a real published update.
  • Mounted volumes are listed but cannot be ejected from the sidebar; use Finder or the Terminal for that.
  • Click-to-rename works in the list view only. That is the one view with in-place editing; the others rename through a dialog.
  • Undo covers move, rename, New Folder, New File and Move to Trash — not copy, duplicate, compress, Make Alias or New Folder with Selection.
  • Nothing can be created in Recents, a saved search or search results — those are queries, not folders.
  • The toolbar field filters the current folder by name; going deeper or looking inside files means picking one of the offered searches, which are a query rather than a folder, capped at 1000 files and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • The sidebar’s own folder tree does not follow Show Hidden Files; a folder’s disclosure chevron reflects only its visible contents.
  • The Trash usually opens in Finder, because ~/.Trash is behind Full Disk Access, which no app can ask for.
  • Cross-volume moves use Foundation’s move operation. This is not a resumable transfer engine.
  • “Open in New Finder++” launches a second copy of the app rather than a second window, and the two share Favorites, so whichever changes them last wins.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk imagecc873508b37160e5687ee2715d33a727edc3ffc82efd7ed0c8e674c0cc920ad1

Built from commit 8504a98218b9c84649767008396def122d1d257d

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Creating things

  • New File in the File menu and in the menu on empty space: a text file, a Markdown document, JSON, an HTML page, a shell script or an empty file. JSON, HTML and the script start with a minimal skeleton; the rest are empty. A name already taken becomes untitled 2.txt rather than overwriting anything.
  • New ▸ Folder with Selection and New ▸ Empty Folder in the menu on one or more items. The first makes a folder and moves the selection into it, the way Finder’s own command does.
  • What you just made is selected and scrolled into view, new folders included — before, a new folder only appeared in the list.
  • Undo covers New File the way it covers New Folder: it goes to the Trash rather than away, and redo writes the template again instead of digging it out of the Trash.

Rename with a click

  • Click the name of an item that is already the only one selected and, after the double-click interval, the name becomes editable in place. A double-click still opens the item, and a drag, a modifier key or a click outside the Name column does nothing of the kind.

Known limits in 0.7.0

  • Click-to-rename works in the list view only. That is the one view with in-place editing; the others rename through a dialog, which would be intrusive to open from a plain click.
  • Undo covers move, rename, New Folder, New File and Move to Trash — not copy, duplicate, compress, Make Alias or New Folder with Selection.
  • A new file or folder is selected but not yet in rename mode: press Return to name it.
  • Nothing can be created in Recents, a saved search or search results — those are queries, not folders — and “New Folder with Selection” is not offered there.
  • The toolbar field filters the current folder by name; going deeper or looking inside files means picking one of the offered searches, which are a query rather than a folder, capped at 1000 files and only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • The Trash usually opens in Finder, because ~/.Trash is behind Full Disk Access, which no app can ask for.
  • Cross-volume moves use Foundation’s move operation. This is not a resumable transfer engine.
  • “Open in New Finder++” launches a second copy of the app rather than a second window, and the two share Favorites, so whichever changes them last wins.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk image0d19207478ea4826d66275b39708362841a719098cd5de2f9afbec1029e9335a

Built from commit b37e025a0e7e4bbca83341c91312bcb3ee35ee77

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Finder++ 0.6.0

Finder++ 0.6.0.

Narrative notes were not published for this version

  • The artifact record below is what was published: the build number, the date, the source commit and the SHA-256 of the disk image. Nothing was written up at the time, and inventing it afterwards would make this page less trustworthy rather than more complete.
SHA-256 of the disk image6ce34c59194898403805e18331c3eda58f7f6ad9dfa2b004a51c73065702fadf

Built from commit 16d4b28182c37d5bb5046e3d2962b2a73d984c56

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The things a file browser is expected to have

  • ⇧⌘. shows hidden files in the file views. The sidebar’s own tree does not answer to it — a deliberate limit rather than an oversight, so a favourite’s disclosure chevron still reflects only its visible contents.
  • Sortable list columns. Click Name, Date Modified or Size to sort by it, click again to reverse. A genuinely new navigation resets to the location’s natural order; reloading the folder already on screen keeps the sort you chose.
  • Rename in place. In the list view the name becomes editable where it sits, with the base name selected and the extension left alone. Return commits, Escape reverts. The other views keep the dialog.
  • It reopens where you left off — the last real folder, the view mode, and which panels were open.
  • Get Info says more: kind, size, created and modified dates, permissions, owner and the default app, with a combined count and total size when several items are selected.

Files move with a way back

  • Undo and redo for move, rename, New Folder and Move to Trash. Not for copy, duplicate, compress or Make Alias. Undoing a New Folder trashes it rather than deleting it outright, so anything put in it since goes with it; redo makes a fresh empty one rather than trying to restore what undo just trashed.
  • Undoing a trash needed the app to know where each item actually landed in the Trash, which it used to discard. It now keeps that, and restores files to their own individually different original folders rather than to one shared destination.
  • Progress and a Cancel button once a move or copy is big enough to be worth watching, with the work off the main thread. Quitting while one is in flight asks rather than silently refusing.
  • Drag and drop between folders, in the list and icon views only — not the gallery filmstrip, not the column browser. It is always a move; there is no Option-to-copy modifier yet.
  • ⌘X marks files for moving, alongside Control-X. It only claims the keystroke once nothing is being edited, so ⌘X still cuts text in the search field, the path field and an inline rename.

The folder keeps up with the disk

  • A change made elsewhere — another app, a shell in the terminal panel, a sync client — now appears in the folder on screen within about half a second, rather than waiting for ⌘R.
  • It watches the folder’s own file descriptor rather than using the full FSEvents API, which would earn its complexity only for a recursive or rename-surviving watch this does not need. Recents, Shared, the tags and search results are still re-read on ⌘R alone.
  • Reloading — from the watch, from ⌘R, or after any file operation — now keeps the selection as well as the scroll position.

Under the surface

  • Directories are read off the main thread, and the views work from a FileItem model rather than passing bare URLs around. Applications and Utilities are merged the way Finder shows them, in every view, including what is on the system volume.
  • A file is thumbnailed once rather than once per view size. The icon grid asked for a 64pt preview and the gallery filmstrip for 56pt — two cache entries for the same file, so switching between Icons and Gallery regenerated every thumbnail on screen.
  • The sidebar’s check for whether a folder can be expanded no longer runs synchronously the first time it is asked, so a favourite on a slow network share cannot hold up launch; and it is re-checked rather than cached forever, so a folder that gains its first subfolder later stops being stuck without a chevron.

Known limits in 0.5.0

  • Undo, redo and drag and drop shipped with unit coverage over the file-moving primitives but without hands-on use in the running app. The release commit says so plainly, and so does this: they are the newest and least exercised things in the build, and they are the ones that move your files.
  • Undo covers move, rename, New Folder and Move to Trash — not copy, duplicate, compress or Make Alias.
  • A cut is internal to this app rather than the system clipboard, and files stay put until pasted. An existing name at the destination is never overwritten; that item stays pending instead.
  • The toolbar field filters the current folder by name. Going deeper or looking inside files means picking one of the offered searches, and those results are a query rather than a folder: at most 1000 files, nothing can be created in them or pasted into them, and they are only as good as the Spotlight index behind them.
  • Recents, Shared and the tags are queries, not folders. Recents shows at most the 500 most recent files, Shared and each tag at most 1000 items, and all of them are empty if Spotlight is off or the volume is not indexed.
  • The Trash usually opens in Finder. ~/.Trash is behind Full Disk Access, which no app can ask for — you grant it in System Settings or not at all. Without it the row hands the Trash to Finder.
  • There are no AirDrop or Network rows: neither is a folder and neither has a public API. Sending files by AirDrop still works from Share… in the contextual menu.
  • Cross-volume moves use Foundation’s move operation. This is not a resumable transfer engine.
  • “Open in New Finder++” launches a second copy of the app rather than a second window. The two share Favorites through the same preferences, so whichever changes them last wins.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk imagee72551744e79a73fd33339a936df20a6b9e34cd2849bb0fbe0f52ba8119a11b8

Built from commit c2abeb302f933075c4a990ab06d8848f1b33519a

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The path bar became a control

  • Click the trail at the foot of the window anywhere the crumbs are not, or press ⌘L, and it becomes a field holding the current path. Names complete against the disk on every keystroke, Return goes there, Escape puts the crumbs back. ⇧⌘G still opens the Go to Folder prompt.
  • The work was in deciding which slice of the typed text a completion replaces. A text field’s editor has its own idea of where the “word” under the caret begins, and it does not agree with a path — without teaching it that a component starts after a separator, the list reads as fragments of path rather than as names.
  • Names complete without a trailing separator, because typing the separator is how you say you want to go deeper, and completing it for you would mean deleting it again first.
  • Completions and typed paths can see what is on the system volume too.

The sidebar got places to go

  • Recents and Shared, built on the same Spotlight queries Finder’s own rows use, so the app keeps no history of its own and records nothing when you open a file.
  • A Trash row, a row per standard tag colour, and iCloud Drive when the Mac is signed in — listed the way Finder composes them.
  • The AirDrop row is drawn with Finder’s own glyph rather than a broadcast symbol.

The views were rebuilt to Finder’s proportions

  • The list, the icon grid and the gallery were rebuilt to match Finder’s own measurements, and the toolbar and sidebar gained their containers. Icon and Gallery draw Quick Look previews of the files themselves rather than the generic type icon.

The app calls itself by its public name

  • The bundle, the DMG volume and the About box had always said Linelark Finder++ while the strings compiled into the app said “Finder++”, so the menu bar and the Quit item disagreed with everything else on screen. The window’s fallback title and the two failure messages that name the app went the same way.

Known limits in 0.3.0

  • No undo, for anything. A move, a rename, a new folder and a Move to Trash are all final in this build. Undo arrived in 0.5.0.
  • No drag and drop between folders. Moving files is Control-X then Control-V.
  • Hidden files cannot be shown, and list columns cannot be sorted.
  • The folder does not refresh itself. A change made in another app or in the terminal panel appears on ⌘R and not before.
  • The app does not reopen where you left off; every launch starts fresh.
  • Recents, Shared and the tags are Spotlight queries rather than folders, and depend on the index being on.
  • The Trash generally opens in Finder, because ~/.Trash is behind Full Disk Access.
SHA-256 of the disk image6828073bef329e0dbe7a7e7a1fcf9aba922480d956b84e3823d6b69185ae56c3

Built from commit 13cb0260255a11db530f89abe7ff83467213a820

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Finder++ 0.2.0

The sidebar opens up.

Folders expand in the sidebar

  • A favourite in the sidebar gained a disclosure chevron, so its folders can be opened in place and drilled into without changing what the main view is showing — the way Explorer’s tree works.

Copy as Pathname

  • The contextual menu can copy a file or folder’s absolute path, which is the one thing a file browser sitting next to a terminal is asked for most often.

Known limits in 0.2.0

  • No undo, no drag and drop, no hidden files, no sortable columns, and no session restore. This is the second beta and it is close to the first.
  • The folder on screen is only re-read on ⌘R.
  • The sidebar has Favorites but not yet Recents, Shared, the Trash, the tags or iCloud Drive; those arrived in 0.3.0.
  • The path bar is a label rather than something you can type into. Going somewhere you cannot see means ⇧⌘G and knowing the path in full.
SHA-256 of the disk image2a4f3e0e341a96580765d2652b24f7c24ab2a4d1a246555698576e41a8b232d8

Built from commit 94b86a764e9a4c6bab7e9510a9b11536e350b179

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Four views, and the Finder things

  • Icons, List, Columns and Gallery, from the toolbar or ⌘1–⌘4, with folders sorting before files using the system’s own ordering. Gallery draws real Quick Look thumbnails rather than the generic type icon.
  • The contextual menu you expect: Open, Open With, Quick Look, Get Info, Rename, Compress, Duplicate, Make Alias, Copy, Share, Tags and Move to Trash.
  • Quick Look on the spacebar, Escape to close, and the standard Finder keyboard shortcuts.
  • Sidebar Favorites: drag folders in, reorder them, rename what they are called. The list persists with its order, display names and icons.

The reason the app exists

  • An embedded terminal below the file list, started in the directory on screen with your login shell.
  • A Claude and Codex dock on the right, running the claude and codex commands already installed on your Mac, each in the browsed folder and each restartable on its own. Neither is bundled, and the app carries no account of its own.

Published as a notarized beta

  • Built as a universal binary in one pass, Developer ID signed and Apple-notarized, and published as a versioned disk image with its SHA-256 alongside.

Known limits in 0.1.0

  • Nothing this build does can be undone. No undo for a move, a rename, a new folder or a Move to Trash.
  • No drag and drop, no hidden files, no sortable columns, no inline rename, and no session restore.
  • The folder does not refresh itself; ⌘R is the only way to see a change made elsewhere.
  • The sidebar has Favorites only — no Recents, Shared, Trash, tags or iCloud Drive.
  • The path bar is a label, not a field.
  • It does not replace Finder and does not integrate with the system as a Finder substitute.
SHA-256 of the disk imagec1307fff9436abf0b62b3b09c0a6de083d2b013c6b89f322b0a91589eb996228

Built from commit 37824e8a64a20ac13932631d65854fa8ed216f25

Permanent page for this version