Cardinal

A fast file searching tool for macOS.

Using Cardinal · Building Cardinal

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Using Cardinal

Download

Grab the latest packaged builds from GitHub Releases.

i18n support

Need a different language? Click the 🌍 button in the status bar to switch instantly.

Search basics

Cardinal now speaks an Everything-compatible syntax layer on top of the classic substring/prefix tricks:

• report draft – space acts as AND, so you only see files whose names contain both tokens.
• *.pdf briefing – filter to PDF results whose names include “briefing”.
• infolder:/Users demo!.psd – restrict the search root to /Users, then search for files whose names contain demo but exclude .psd.
• "Application Support" – quote exact phrases.
• brary/Applicat – use / as a path separator for sub-path searching, matching directories like Library/Application Support.

For the supported operator catalog—including boolean grouping, folder scoping, extension filters, regex usage, and more examples—see doc/search-syntax.md.

Keyboard shortcuts & previews

• Space – Quick Look the currently selected row without leaving Cardinal.
• Cmd+R – reveal the highlighted result in Finder.
• Cmd+F – jump focus back to the search bar.
• Cmd+C – copy the selected file's path to the clipboard.
• Cmd+Shift+Space – toggle the Cardinal window globally via the quick-launch hotkey.

Happy searching!

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Building Cardinal

Requirements

• macOS 12+
• Rust toolchain
• Node.js 18+ with npm
• Xcode command-line tools & Tauri prerequisites (https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/)

Development mode

cd cardinal
npm run tauri dev -- --release --features dev

Production build

cd cardinal
npm run tauri build