KatSearch for Mac

Note: KatSearch is a work in progress and only available as an alpha release. Some things will be broken. Caveat emptor!

KatSearch is a power-user app to quickly find files on entire HFS+/APFS volumes by scanning the file system catalog.

Do you miss the good ol’ days before Spotlight, when search on the Mac simply scanned the filesystem? Yeah, me too.

Unlike Spotlight, KatSearch performs no indexing and only looks at filenames, not content. It uses a fast low-level kernel call to search the entire file system via the APFS or HFS+ file system catalog.

• Fast, native, modern macOS app with a responsive, no-nonsense interface
• Displays live search results
• Scans the actual file system, not just the userland files Apple wants you to see
• Can run with admin privileges to find all files irrespective of permissions
• Ubiquitous native drag and drop behaviour, with hooks into Finder actions/services
• Supports all the standard Finder keyboard shortcuts for file actions
• Search windows can be invoked using a global hotkey
• Includes a command line tool counterpart (searchfs)

KatSearch is free, open source software and has a home on GitHub. If you find this program useful, please make a donation.