Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS — with the search brought up to the surface.
Signed and notarized · Apple silicon · macOS 12+
This is a fork of Cardinal by cardisoft — the best Everything alternative for macOS. The engine is theirs and it is excellent; what this fork changes is how much of it you can reach without knowing the syntax first.
- A file-type dropdown beside the search bar: Image, Video, Audio, Document, Email, Archive, Code, App, Folder. Picking one writes the filter into the query —
type:image— instead of hiding it, so the bar stays the single source of truth and the syntax is there to be learned. - A "Contains" field for searching inside files, next to the one for names. It writes
content:"…"the same way. - A context column showing the matching text from inside each file, with the searched term highlighted, so a content search tells you why every result is there.
type:email—.eml,.emlx,.emlxpart,.msg,.mbox. Apple Mail's formats are the ones nobody finds by name.- A folder picker. The folder icon opens one, instead of folding the field away.
- Columns you can reorder by dragging their titles, with the snippet next to the name by default.
- Plain wording. "Folder scope" is now "Search in… (whole disk)", in all 15 languages.
- An accessible name on the search input, contributed upstream by @dkattan (#220).
Everything below is the original project's documentation, unchanged.
English · Español · 한국어 · Русский · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · Português · Italiano · 日本語 · Français · Deutsch · Українська · العربية · हिन्दी · Türkçe
Download Cardinal 0.3.5 for macOS — signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without Gatekeeper warnings.
Every build lives in Releases. Open the DMG, drag Cardinal to Applications, and grant Full Disk Access when macOS asks — Cardinal needs it to index and watch your files.
Need a different language? Click the ⚙️ button in the status bar to switch instantly.
Cardinal now speaks an Everything-compatible syntax layer on top of the classic substring/prefix tricks:
report draft– space acts asAND, so you only see files whose names contain both tokens.*.pdf briefing– filter to PDF results whose names include “briefing”.*.zip size:>100MB– search for ZIP files larger than 100MB.in:/Users demo !.psd– restrict the search root to/Users, then search for files whose names containdemobut exclude.psd.tag:ProjectA;ProjectB– match Finder tags (macOS);;acts asOR.*.md content:"Bearer "– filter to Markdown files containing the stringBearer."Application Support"– quote exact phrases.brary/Applicat– use/as a path separator for sub-path searching, matching directories likeLibrary/Application Support./report·draft/·/report/– wrap tokens with leading and/or trailing slashes to force prefix, suffix, or exact name matches when you need whole-word control beyond Everything syntax.~/**/.DS_Store– globstar (**) dives through every subfolder under your home directory to find stray.DS_Storefiles anywhere in the tree.
For the supported operator catalog—including boolean grouping, folder scoping, extension filters, regex usage, and more examples—see doc/pub/search-syntax.md.
Cmd+Shift+Space– toggle the Cardinal window globally via the quick-launch hotkey.Cmd+,– open Preferences.Esc– hide the Cardinal window.ArrowUp/ArrowDown– move the selection.Shift+ArrowUp/Shift+ArrowDown– extend the selection.Space– Quick Look the currently selected row without leaving Cardinal.Cmd+O– open the highlighted result.Cmd+R– reveal the highlighted result in Finder.Cmd+C– copy the selected files to the clipboard.Cmd+Shift+C– copy the selected paths to the clipboard.Cmd+F– jump focus back to the search bar.ArrowUp/ArrowDown(in search bar) – cycle search history.
Happy searching!
- macOS 12+
- Rust toolchain
- Node.js 18+ with npm
- Xcode command-line tools & Tauri prerequisites (https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/)
cd cardinal
npm run tauri dev -- --release --features devcd cardinal
npm run tauri build