Finally, a file manager from 2026!
The standard two-pane file manager experience we already love,
- plus a drive index for instant search and visible folder sizes,
- plus a bunch of (optional!) AI features to organize your files.
Built in Rust, free for personal use.
Source-available · Free for personal use · Commercial from $59/year
Built by a dev who’s used two-pane file managers like Total Commander for 35 years, and couldn’t find a good one on Mac.
Built for power users
Unimaginably fast, keyboard-driven, and gets smarter every week.
Live full-disk index
Indexes your entire drive in 4 minutes. Once. Then stays current forever, even across restarts.
Private LLM included
Comes with an on-device model for local, private use. Bring your own OpenAI/Anthropic/etc. API key for smarter results.
Really, really fast
Built in Rust. Opens a 100k-file folder in 4 seconds with icons, sizes, and dates, cold. In 1 second when warm.
Keyboard-first
Kb-first navigate, select, copy, move, rename; menus, tabs, settings; command palette. But works with a mouse, too.
Fresh and upcoming
Smart search
Find files by saying: “that PDF contract from last month” or “all my node_modules folders”
AlphaNatural language rename
Commands like “make these files lowercase and add date prefix”. No regex, no scripts.
AlphaAI file organization
Say “Clean up my Downloads folder” to get a list of move/delete suggestions you can approve/reject.
Notes from the dev
I first used Norton Commander at 6, then was a huge Total Commander fan for ~20 years. When I switched to the Mac, all ~10 alternatives I tried were meh. Cmdr is the first actually promising one.
David
software eng
Whaaat? 100k files in 4 seconds? That is INSANE! With full icons, sizes, dates, everything. Try doing that in Whatever Commander!
David
software eng
Live full-disk index and instant AI search with a private LLM? What a time to be alive! I wouldn’t believe it works if I didn’t build it myself. ;)
David
software eng
Get Cmdr now!
Free for personal use. No signup, no account needed.
Cmdr is in open beta: solid for daily use, and your feedback shapes what’s next. See the feature status.
or install with Homebrew
brew tap vdavid/tap && brew trust --cask vdavid/tap/cmdr && brew install --cask cmdr The brew trust step is Homebrew 6’s one-time okay for third-party taps.
Free for personal use · Commercial from $59/yr
Source-available · BSL 1.1 license
Needs macOS 12 or newer. macOS 10.15 and 11 run on a best-effort basis: everything works, but a few colors and layout details can look off.