FAQ

What is Seek?

Seek is a free native file manager for macOS. It brings together the dual / quad-pane workflow of a commander, the remote protocols of a transfer client (SFTP / S3 / WebDAV today), the Git fluency of a developer tool, and a global launcher (⌘⇧Space) you can hit from any app.

How is Seek different from Finder, ForkLift, Path Finder, and Tokie?

Each of those tools is good at one thing. Seek tries to be the honest overlap — without the price tag.

• vs. Finder — Seek adds dual / quad pane, real tabs, an editable address bar, ⌘X cut/paste, a command palette, remote servers, Git, bulk rename, and a global launcher. Finder stays the system default; Seek runs alongside it.
• vs. ForkLift — ForkLift is a mature remote-first transfer client (SFTP, FTP, SMB, WebDAV, S3, AFP, GDrive, Backblaze) starting at around $20. Seek today ships SFTP / S3 / WebDAV — fewer protocols, but free, with native Git, a command palette, and a global launcher ForkLift doesn't have.
• vs. Path Finder — Path Finder is a mature, baroque power-user kitchen sink for $36+ that hasn't materially changed in years. Seek's surface is narrower and more opinionated, and the source is open so you can read every line.
• vs. Tokie — Tokie is a beautiful, narrow, single-pane knowledge-worker tool. Seek is a multi-pane, developer-leaning workhorse.
• vs. QSpace — QSpace owns "free multi-pane file manager." Seek shares the multi-pane stance and adds Git, S3 / SFTP / WebDAV, a command palette, and a global launcher.

If your day involves Git and SSH'ing into servers, Seek is for you. If you mostly want a prettier Finder with tabs and a command palette, Seek is also for you.

Why "Seek"?

It's short, easy to say, and describes what a file manager is for. We considered many names. Seek won.

Is Seek really free, even commercially?

Yes. Use it personally, at work, ship it with your fleet. No accounts. No upsells. No "Pro" tier. No trial period. No telemetry.

How is it free?

Seek is a side project, like its sister app Velo. We're building it because Finder is the most-used app on every Mac and the best alternatives cost money. We want a great free option to exist. If Seek saves you time, you can buy us a coffee.

Does it replace Finder?

No — they coexist. Finder remains your system's default. Seek opens like any other app. Reveal in Finder is one keystroke away when you need it. We don't hijack folder-open defaults system-wide.

What can Seek do that Finder can't?

A lot. Some highlights:

• Up to four panes in one window (Pro mode)
• Real tabs you can tear off, drag between, restore, and pin (pinned tabs survive ⌘W)
• Editable address bar (⌘L) with a context-menu Jump to project root that walks up to the nearest .git, Package.swift, Cargo.toml, etc.
• Cut and paste with the move-on-paste flag (⌘X then ⌘V)
• A command palette (⌘K) for every action, plus a global launcher (⌘⇧Space)
• SFTP, S3, and WebDAV built in (FTP / SMB coming soon)
• A transfer queue with pause / resume / retry / parallel jobs / bandwidth cap
• Live git status (FSEvents-driven, ~250ms refresh) plus stage / commit / branch / per-hunk staging, blame, diff, history, stash list/pop/drop
• An embedded terminal with persistent history, frecency-ranked Ctrl+R, prefix-aware Up/Down recall, and Tab-to-expand for snippets
• Clipboard history sheet (⇧⌘]) with search and length indicators
• Snippets with , , , , placeholders
• Workspace snapshots — name a multi-pane layout, restore it later
• Trash undo log with one-click recover (no manual ~/.Trash digging)
• Select Same… menu — bulk-select every PDF / .swift / image / folder in the active view
• Bulk rename with regex
• Archive creation and extraction (zip, 7z, rar, tar, etc.)
• Duplicate finder
• Folder size visualization
• Permissions UI
• Smart Folders saved as live searches
• Configurable global launcher hotkey — ⌘⇧Space by default, re-bindable in Settings → General

What does Seek not try to be?

• It's not on the Mac App Store. Sandbox limits are incompatible with a power-user file manager.
• It's not an iPad / iPhone app.
• It's not a replacement for Tower or Fork for advanced git work (interactive rebase, complex graph editing).
• It's not a backup tool.
• It's not a cloud sync service. It connects to existing services.

Will Seek's clipboard hotkey conflict with Raycast / Alfred / Maccy?

Seek's clipboard history defaults to ⇧⌘] — a deliberately non-colliding chord — because Raycast and Alfred users tend to bind ⇧⌘V globally. Seek's binding lives inside Seek's window, not system-wide, so even if you remap it, you can keep your global clipboard manager too. Power users routinely run Seek's history alongside Raycast's.

What does Seek's global launcher hotkey conflict with?

Seek's global hotkey defaults to ⌘⇧Space. The most common collisions are: an old iTerm full-screen toggle, certain TextExpander setups, and bespoke Karabiner / Hammerspoon configurations. If registration silently fails (the chord is already taken), the menu-bar item still works as a manual launcher trigger, and you can pick a new chord under Settings → General → Launcher. Click the recorder, press your preferred combo, and Seek re-installs the binding live.

What persists across launches?

A few things, all on disk under your user library — Seek never phones home:

• Pane count, pane URLs, view styles, inspector visibility (UserDefaults)
• Pinned tabs, sidebar collapse state, terminal-app preference
• Saved connections (encrypted in Keychain)
• Snippets and workspace snapshots (~/Library/Application Support/Seek/)
• Trash undo log (~/Library/Application Support/Seek/trash_log.json)
• Shell history JSONL (~/Library/Caches/Seek/shell_history.jsonl)
• The launcher hotkey chord (UserDefaults key globalLauncherHotkey)

Clear any of them by deleting the corresponding file or running defaults delete com.ataiva.seek.

Does it support cloud drives?

Today, cloud drives (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) work through their WebDAV interfaces or local sync folders. Native API drivers for each are on the roadmap.

iCloud Drive works as it does in Finder.

Does it support iCloud Drive?

Yes — iCloud Drive folders behave the same as in Finder.

Is there an AI feature?

Yes — but it's strictly opt-in. Seek ships with no AI provider connected by default. When you turn it on (Settings → AI), you pick one of four:

• Local — Seek auto-detects Ollama on port 11434 and llama.cpp on port 8080. Pick a model from the dropdown of what you've actually installed. No API key needed; nothing leaves localhost.
• OpenAI-compatible (any /v1/chat/completions endpoint — vLLM, LiteLLM, OpenAI proper, OpenRouter, your own gateway) — bring your own key.
• Anthropic — bring your own key.
• AWS Bedrock — every frontier model under one provider (Claude, Llama, Mistral, Titan, Cohere). Reads credentials from your ~/.aws/credentials profile; no API key field.

Switch between them with a picker; credentials live in macOS Keychain (or ~/.aws/credentials for Bedrock), one slot per provider. See the AI page for the full breakdown.

Does Seek require AI?

No. Every Seek feature works without an AI provider connected, including the global launcher. AI is a layer on top that translates natural-language requests ("open the dotfiles repo") into existing Seek verbs. Skip it if you want; the keyword launcher and command palette are the deterministic floor.

Where does my AI query go?

Whatever provider you connected. Local stays on localhost — nothing crosses your network boundary. OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, and AWS Bedrock all connect directly from Seek to your chosen provider — no proxy through any server we run, and we never log your prompts. We don't have telemetry for AI use; we don't even know you're using it.

What can Seek's AI actually do?

Read-only verbs only: open / reveal a file or folder, build a search filter, run a snippet, open a saved connection. It can't delete, move, overwrite, rename, or commit. Destructive verbs stay deterministic — you type the exact command. Even GPT-4 picks the wrong file 5–10% of the time; a 1B local model picks worse. Read-only is the safety floor that makes the feature shippable at all.

The model is also pinned to paths you've actually opened before — recents and favourites. If it tries to invent a file path, the suggestion is rejected and the launcher tells you so. Hallucinations can't reach your filesystem.

Is there a plugin / extension API?

Not yet. The internal architecture has clean module boundaries, so a public plugin API is feasible later — but we're not committing to it. We'd rather keep Seek focused than chase plugin parity with Raycast or Alfred.

Can I script Seek?

Yes. AppleScript dictionary, Shortcuts.app actions, and a seek:// URL scheme are all included today.

Does it work with my keyboard?

Every action has a shortcut. Every shortcut is rebindable. Power users can live in Seek without touching the mouse.

Is it accessible?

Full VoiceOver support, keyboard navigation everywhere, reduced motion respected, increased contrast respected, larger text supported.

Does Seek collect data?

No telemetry by default. If you opt in, we may collect anonymous crash reports (Sentry-style) — but only after explicit consent, and you can turn it off any time.

How do I install Seek?

Download the DMG and drag Seek to Applications. Or, via Homebrew:

brew tap ataiva/seek
brew install --cask seek

How does it stay up to date?

Sparkle with an EdDSA-signed appcast. Updates roll out automatically — you don't have to come back to the website.

What versions of macOS are supported?

macOS 14 Sonoma and newer. Apple Silicon and Intel.

How do I report bugs?

Email seek@ataiva.com. Useful bug reports usually include:

• macOS version and chip (Apple Silicon / Intel)
• Seek version (Seek → About)
• Steps to reproduce
• A short screen recording or screenshot if relevant

For security-sensitive reports, please email rather than posting publicly so we can ship a fix before the issue is widely known.

What's coming next?

The current focus is expanding the protocol set and the AI surface:

• Near-term: FTP driver, SMB driver, Git decoration polish in the file list.
• Mid-term: Native cloud-drive drivers (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive), more Quick Look enhancers, expanded snippet library.
• Longer-term: AI extensions behind the existing read-only verb surface (semantic search, rename suggestions, file Q&A) — opt-in, local-first where possible.

Who builds Seek?

Same author as Velo. Volunteer, side-project work — please be patient and kind.