yagni-commander

An opinionated, keyboard-first, dual-pane file manager for macOS and Linux. The everyday parts of Total Commander, and nothing you won't need.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/sebbarg/yagni-commander/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Source on GitHub Latest release Other ways to install

Theme
Tab switch · ↑↓ move · Enter open · Backspace up

Click the panels and use the keys: ↑ ↓, Tab, Enter, Backspace, Space, Insert, or type the start of a name. Esc leaves the demo. The theme buttons switch this whole page between the app's five built-in themes.

The keys your fingers already know

Total Commander's keymap, on every platform. Ctrl, not Cmd, on the Mac, so the same muscle memory works on both.

F3
View. Multi-GB files open instantly, as text, hex or formatted Markdown.
F4
Edit in your own editor, such as code --wait.
F5 F6
Copy or move to the other panel, in the background, with a prompt per conflict.
F7
New folder. a/b/c makes all three.
F8
Move to the trash. Shift-F8 deletes for good.
F2
Rename, with the name selected up to its extension.
Shift-F4
New file, opened in your editor.
Alt-F7
Find files by name and content, then feed the results to a panel.
Alt-F5 Alt-F9
Pack into a zip, or unpack zip and tar archives.
Ctrl-D
Your folder hotlist, each entry on its own letter.
Ctrl-F
Connect to a host from your ~/.ssh/config.
Alt-F1 Alt-F2
Drives and mounts for the left or right panel.
Ctrl-T Ctrl-W
Open and close tabs on either side.
Alt-Z Ctrl-U
Show this folder on the other side, or swap the sides.
Shift-Enter
Open with any application your desktop registers for the file.
Ctrl-Shift-T
Open a terminal in the current folder.

The full keymap is in the spec.

What else it does

Remote folders over SFTP

Browse, copy and move between machines through your own ssh. Aliases, keys, the agent and jump hosts work as they do in a terminal, and password prompts come up in the app.

A viewer for big files

F3 reads by byte position, never the whole file, so a 10 GB log opens at once. Search, select and copy, switch to hex, or read Markdown formatted with its local images.

Archives as folders

Enter on a zip or tarball opens it like a folder. View or copy entries out; encrypted zips ask for the password. Extraction never writes outside its folder.

The Git branch, without the wait

Inside a repository the path header shows main ↑2 ↓1 •: commits ahead and behind, and a dot when something changed. It arrives after the listing, so no folder waits for git.

Never frozen by a folder

Folders load in the background, so a huge directory or a dead network mount never locks up the window. Panels follow changes other programs make.

Plain settings

Five themes, two zoom levels and a TOML config file you can edit by hand. An optional log records every file operation. Nothing phones home: updates are checked only when you ask.

yagni-commander showing a home folder on the left and /etc on the right, in the Tokyo Night theme
On Omarchy (Hyprland), with the Tokyo Night theme.

Install

For macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86_64, glibc 2.35 or newer). It installs for you alone, no root needed, and the same line updates it.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/sebbarg/yagni-commander/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

What the script does

  • Downloads the latest release and checks it against its SHA256SUMS.
  • macOS: puts yagni-commander.app in ~/Applications.
  • Linux: puts the binary, a launcher entry and the icons in ~/.local.
  • Add -s -- --uninstall after sh to remove it.

Prefer to do it yourself

You ain't gonna need it

yagni-commander does the fifth of a classic commander you reach for every day, and leaves the rest out on purpose, so it stays focused. It is tested on macOS, KDE Plasma (X11 and Wayland) and Omarchy. Bug reports are welcome. Feature requests might get a YAGNI.

It stands on the shoulders of: