Cardinal File Search

A fast file searching tool for macOS. Need a different language? Click the 🌍 button in the status bar to switch instantly.

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”. *.zip size:>100MB – search for ZIP files larger than 100MB. infolder:/Users demo!.psd – restrict the search root to /Users, then search for files whose names contain demo but exclude .psd. *.md content:"Bearer " – filter to Markdown files containing the string Bearer . "Application Support" – quote exact phrases. brary/Applicat – use / as a path separator for sub-path searching, matching directories like Library/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. 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!