strata-files

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Why Strata

Finder is fine until you need to find something, figure out what's eating your disk, or move a few hundred files without a beachball. Strata keeps everything you already know: the look, the shortcuts, drag and drop, Quick Look, tabs. Then it adds what you've been missing:

• Search that keeps up with you. Every file in your home folder and Applications, searchable as you type. Once the index is built, results arrive in milliseconds, even across millions of files.
• Sizes you can trust. Folders show their real size the moment you open them, kept current as files change.
• A keyboard-first workflow. Jump anywhere with ⌘K, type to filter any folder, and keep your hands off the mouse if you like.
• File operations without fear. Pause and resume big copies, see conflicts side by side before replacing anything, and undo past operations, even after you quit.
• Made for people who build things. Git status on every file, project-aware cleanup, Open in Terminal, and previews for code, data and archives.

Find anything, instantly

Type a name, use precise filters, or just say what you mean: "videos bigger than 500 MB", "pdfs from last month". Strata understands plain English, shows you how it read your search, and answers before you finish typing. Go further with regex: and Match Case, or ask Spotlight about what's in the files: camera:iphone, width:>1920, duration:>10m, "photos taken with iPhone". Save any search to the sidebar and it stays live as files change.

Jump anywhere with ⌘K

One shortcut opens a command palette that knows your most-used folders, the files in your index and Strata's commands. Type acme-web/ to list a project's contents without opening a single window, or plain English like pdfs from last week.

Prefer a search box like Windows has? Turn on Settings ▸ General ▸ Search box in the Dock: a box sits in the Dock next to Strata's icon and finds what ⌘K finds, plus your apps and documents by what they say, from any app.

See where your space went

Folder sizes appear the moment you open a folder, without waiting on "Calculating…". Switch to Disk Usage to see your folders as a map, then use Large Files and Duplicates in the sidebar to reclaim gigabytes in minutes.

Look inside. Stay where you are.

Press Space to preview a file or look inside a folder or archive. Browse the list or thumbnails, preview files alongside, and filter, sort, open or copy just what you need without leaving your current folder.

Format	What you can do
Markdown	Read rendered text, tables and code blocks, with Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX equations right in the document.
Code and configuration	Syntax highlighting, line numbers, Find and word wrap for Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Go, C/C++, shell scripts, YAML, TOML, XML, Dockerfiles and more.
JSON	Read formatted JSON, JSONC and JSON5 without opening an editor.
HTML	Switch between the rendered page and its source.
CSV, TSV and PSV	Page through data, sort columns, find values and copy individual cells or rectangles.
SQLite	Choose a table or view, page through its rows, sort, find and copy cells.
Excel and OpenDocument (.xlsx, .ods)	Switch worksheets and explore their saved values with the same table controls.
STL and 3MF models	Rotate and zoom 3D models, with triangle counts and dimensions.
EPUB and comics	Read book chapters and browse comic pages in EPUB, CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT files.
OneNote	Navigate notebook contents and read section pages (.one, .onetoc2), or browse packaged notebooks (.onepkg).
Archives and packages	Browse ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR, ISO and CAB, plus packages such as JAR, APK, IPA and WHL. Preview or copy individual files inside.

PDFs, photos, audio, video and other formats supported by your Mac open through macOS Quick Look. File previews are also available in the inspector.

Five views. Two panes.

Icons, List, Columns, Gallery and Disk Usage, one keystroke apart (⌘1–⌘5, in Finder's order), with ⌘+ and ⌘− for the text size in List and Columns. Turn on Dual Pane to work with two folders side by side, copy or move between them with a keystroke, or compare and sync them.

Your colors. Still your Mac.

Choose System for the Mac’s own colors, or one of seventeen presets: Graphite, Blue, Green, Purple, Sand, Teal, Rose, Amber, Slate, Sage, Coral, Plum, Ice, Midnight, Catppuccin, Dracula and Tokyo Night. Each has a light and dark palette, with coordinated colors across the file views, sidebar, inspector, toolbar and secondary windows. Native macOS controls and familiar behavior stay intact.

Find them in Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Color theme. Turn Window tint off to keep native backgrounds while using the palette for selections and accents. You can also adjust row density and the size of file names.

Want to contribute a palette? Add a JSON theme file and its translated name, then rebuild; no Swift changes are needed. The theme guide explains the format and the light/dark and accessibility checks.

Made for developers

Repositories

• Git at a glance. File status appears beside each file, and the current branch stays in the path bar.
• Project tools in the inspector. Strata recognizes Node, Rust, Swift, .NET, Python, Go and more. Run a project's scripts or reclaim space from build folders such as node_modules; cleanup sends them to the Trash.
• Previews alongside your files. Read code, Markdown, HTML, JSON, CSV, SQLite databases and archives in the inspector.

Servers

Connect to Server (⌥⌘K) adds connections under Servers in the sidebar.

• SFTP uses your SSH setup: ~/.ssh/config, keys, the agent and ProxyJump. Open in Terminal starts a shell on the server.
• S3 supports Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, MinIO and compatible services. Secret keys stay in your keychain.
• Familiar file commands work across every view, including Quick Look, copying files in and out, renaming and deleting. Moves within a server stay on that server.

Containers

Works with Docker Desktop, OrbStack, Colima, Podman and Rancher Desktop.

• Browse and copy files out. Containers appear as folders in the sidebar. Browse their files read-only, fetch contents as needed, or open a terminal inside a container.
• Manage containers in place. Start, stop, restart or pause them from the context menu or inspector. See their images, ports, mounts and Compose services.
• Control Compose stacks. Start, stop or restart a project's containers together, and open the project in your terminal or code editor.

Everything else you'd expect, done right

Trash	In the sidebar, like Finder: Put Back (also what Finder trashed), Delete Immediately and Empty Trash, with other disks' Trashes counted.
Archives	Compress and extract zip, tar, 7z, rar and more, safely: nothing escapes its folder and downloads stay quarantined. Or double-click a zip to browse it like a folder and copy things out.
Tags	Finder's tags everywhere: colored dots, the color row in the context menu, a tag field in the inspector, a Tags section in the sidebar and tag: in search.
Books and comics	Cover thumbnails for EPUB, CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT. Browse comic pages with Space, read EPUB chapters in Quick Look or the inspector, and search with kind:book or kind:comic.
Batch rename	Replace text (or a regular expression), add text, number with a format or change case, previewed live, undone in one step.
Get Info	Edit comments, the app a file opens with, Locked and permissions right in the inspector.
App updates	Right-click apps and choose Check for Updates… to see which have a newer version, from their own update feed or the App Store.
Network shares	Connect to SMB, AFP, NFS and WebDAV shares (⌥⌘K), with macOS's own login and your keychain; SFTP servers and S3 buckets are covered above.
Cloud folders	See what's only in iCloud Drive or another cloud folder, with Download Now and Remove Download.
Compare and sync	Compare the two panes' folders and sync them both ways, one way, or as a mirror, verified and undoable.
Your shortcuts, your look	Change any menu shortcut in Settings. Choose a color theme in light or dark mode, adjust row density and set the size of file names.
Copy queue	Big copies run in the background with progress you can pause, resume or cancel. Conflicts are asked up front, with a side-by-side comparison and a diff for text files, and folders can be merged. Turn on Verify copies in Settings to check that every byte arrived. Moves between disks keep the original if it changed while copying.
History	Renames, moves, copies and deletions are recorded. Undo them later, even days later and after a restart, as long as the items are still where they were left.
Recents	Files you changed in the last 7 days, across your home folder, in one place.
Shelf	Collect files from anywhere, then drop them all at once.
Your sidebar	Drag folders into Favorites, reorder them, and eject disks right from the sidebar, or switch it to a tree of every folder. Windows and tabs come back where you left them.
Path bar	Type a path, github/acme, or just a folder's name: matching folders are suggested as you type.
Workspaces	Save a set of tabs and panes, with their views, and reopen them together from the sidebar, ⌘K or strata -w. Folders on network shares and servers connect again.
Ask Strata	Describe a bulk change (rename these photos by date taken) and review the plan before anything happens. Runs on your Mac: built-in rules handle common requests, and Apple Intelligence handles the rest.
Summaries	Get the gist of a PDF or document in the inspector: a short summary written by Apple Intelligence, or the key sentences without it. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.
Command line	Install it from Settings, then strata . opens the current folder and strata -s "invoice pdf" searches from your terminal.

Keyboard first

Most actions have a shortcut, and most of the ones you know from Finder work the same way. Can't remember one? Click Keyboard Shortcuts at the bottom of the sidebar, or press ⌘/.

Private by design

Strata runs entirely on your Mac. The search index, summaries and AI features are local: no accounts, no tracking, no cloud. Its file index, content index and history are encrypted on disk with a key in your keychain. And a folder you browse can't run its own code just because you looked at it: Strata switches off the git features a downloaded repository could use to do that. It only goes online to check for updates (its own, if you allow it, and other apps' when you ask it to) and to the servers you connect to. Containers' and servers' files are read as you browse and cleared when Strata quits; SFTP logs in with your own SSH setup, and an S3 secret key stays in your keychain.

Read the Strata app Privacy Policy for details about local data, storage, permissions, network connections and your controls.

Translations

Strata comes in 22 languages and follows your Mac's (or pick one in Settings ▸ General). Each language is one plain JSON file in Localization: improving a translation or adding a language is a pull request, no Xcode needed. Localization/README.md has the four steps.

The README translations share this English source and are generated from catalogs. See the README translation guide to update one or add another language.

Get Strata

Download the latest version from GitHub Releases, open the disk image and drag Strata to Applications. It needs an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 26. Releases are signed and notarized by Apple, so Strata opens like any other app. It updates itself: Strata ▸ Check for Updates…, or automatically if you allow it (updates are signed and checked before they're installed).

Homebrew:

brew install --cask cristipufu/tap/strata

Or build it yourself with the Swift toolchain (Xcode or the Command Line Tools):

git clone https://github.com/cristipufu/strata-files.git
cd strata-files
scripts/build.sh release --open

For the best experience, give Strata Full Disk Access in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, so it can search and measure everything without asking folder by folder. Strata walks you through it on first launch.

Releasing

Push a version tag and the Release workflow builds Strata on a Mac, signs it with the Developer ID certificate, has Apple notarize it, and publishes a GitHub Release with Strata.dmg, Strata.zip, their checksums and appcast.xml, the signed update feed installed copies check. The release notes come from docs/release-notes/<version>.md when there is one, and the update window shows them too.

git tag v0.2.0 && git push origin v0.2.0

License

Strata is open source under the MIT License.

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