paolosturbini/folderbase

FolderBase is a file manager for Mac that adds custom metadata to files and folders you already have on your computer, without moving them into a separate library or changing their contents. Your documents stay right where they are, and FolderBase keeps a local database on the side that tracks notes, tags, dates, and Kanban style workflow states for each item. You can add custom columns for things like notes, numbers, dates, colored tags, or task board columns, and these settings can be inherited by every subfolder inside a parent folder. The app is built to stay responsive even with very large folders, using background loading and caching so scrolling and searching do not freeze the interface. It also supports drag and drop, bulk editing, CSV export, and clickable Markdown links you can paste into notes elsewhere. Beyond plain metadata, FolderBase can index your documents for search, read text out of scanned PDFs and images using OCR, and combine exact text matches with meaning based search. There is an optional AI chat feature that lets you ask questions about your documents and get answers with cited sources. You can choose to run this AI processing entirely on your own Mac using Apple's built in tools or a local Ollama setup, or send it to OpenAI's cloud service using your own API key. A single switch turns off all AI features if you prefer not to use them. FolderBase also includes full backups of your metadata and settings, scheduled backups with safety checks, light and dark appearance, and update checks through GitHub. It is built with Swift and SwiftUI, uses SQLite for storage, and requires macOS 14.4 or later. You can download a signed, ready to run version or build it from source using Swift's own build tools. The interface supports both English and Italian, and the project is released under the MIT license, free to use, inspect, and modify.