• Raycast/Spotlight don't find files in certain locations.
• Houdahspot is close but the search isn't instant.
• There's a few others but they're either laggy or have bad UX.

Use the original if you don't care for these features. I'll delete my fork when these are merged but main dev has been busy.

Use homebrew:

brew install --cask maddada/tap/cardinal-x

You can also grab the latest packaged builds from GitHub Releases.

Cardinal

Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS.

Using Cardinal Building Cardinal

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Need a different language? Click the ⚙️ button in the status bar to switch instantly.

Cardinal X 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.
• in:/Users demo !.psd – restrict the search root to /Users, then search for files whose names contain demo but exclude .psd.
• tag:ProjectA;ProjectB – match Finder tags (macOS); ; acts as OR.
• *.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.
• ~/**/.DS_Store – globstar (**) dives through every subfolder under your home directory to find stray .DS_Store files anywhere in the tree.

For the supported operator catalog—including boolean grouping, folder scoping, extension filters, regex usage, and more examples—see doc/pub/search-syntax.md.

• Cmd+Shift+Space – toggle the Cardinal X window globally via the quick-launch hotkey.
• Cmd+, – open Preferences.
• Esc – hide the Cardinal X window.
• ArrowUp/ArrowDown – move the selection.
• Shift+ArrowUp/Shift+ArrowDown – extend the selection.
• Space – Quick Look the currently selected row without leaving Cardinal X.
• Cmd+O – open the highlighted result.
• Cmd+R – reveal the highlighted result in Finder.
• Cmd+C – copy the selected files to the clipboard.
• Cmd+Shift+C – copy the selected paths to the clipboard.
• Cmd+F – jump focus back to the search bar.
• ArrowUp/ArrowDown (in search bar) – cycle search history.

Happy searching!

• macOS 12+
• Rust toolchain
• Node.js 18+ with npm
• Xcode command-line tools & Tauri prerequisites (https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/)

cd cardinal
npm run tauri dev -- --release --features dev

cd cardinal
npm run tauri build