SafiFiles

A modern, native macOS file manager written in pure C using the microui immediate-mode UI library and SDL3. Designed as a Finder replacement with first-class SSH/SFTP, dual-pane navigation, tabbed browsing, and a built-in terminal emulator.

Status

Early development. The core file browser is functional with both list and grid views, real image thumbnails, and animated light/dark themes. SSH integration, the terminal, and most file operations are still on the roadmap — see FEATURES.md for the full status.

Features in the current build

• Native macOS window powered by SDL3 + microui
• Light & Dark themes (auto-detected from system, toggle with ⌘J)
• Sidebar with Favorites and Devices, full keyboard navigation
• Tabbed browsing (⌘T new tab, ⌘W close tab)
• Clickable breadcrumb path bar
• Back / Forward / Up shortcuts (⌘[, ⌘], ⌘↑)
• List view with vector file-type icons
• Grid view with real image thumbnails (PNG / JPG / GIF / WebP / HEIC)
• Sort by name / size / date
• Toggle hidden files (⌘⇧.)
• Move-to-Trash via NSFileManager (⌘⌫)
• FSEvents-driven auto-refresh on directory changes
• Persistent settings at ~/.config/safifiles/config.json

Requirements

• macOS 13 or newer (Ventura+)
• Xcode Command Line Tools
• CMake 3.25+
• Homebrew packages: libssh, libarchive

Build

# Install dependencies
brew install libssh libarchive cmake

# Configure (also fetches SDL3 + microui via FetchContent)
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON

# Symlink compile_commands.json for Zed / clangd
ln -sf build/compile_commands.json compile_commands.json

# Build
cmake --build build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

# Run
./build/SafiFiles

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New tab	⌘T
Close tab	⌘W
Back / Forward	⌘[ / ⌘]
Parent directory	⌘↑
Refresh	⌘R
Toggle hidden files	⌘⇧.
Toggle light/dark theme	⌘J
Move to Trash	⌘⌫
Delete permanently	⌘⇧⌫
Open file / folder	⌘↩

Tech stack

• Pure C11 for the core (≈8000 LOC, growing)
• Objective-C for thin macOS bridges (FSEvents, NSFileManager, NSWorkspace)
• microui — ~1100 LOC immediate-mode UI library
• SDL3 — windowing, input, hardware-accelerated 2D rendering
• stb_truetype — UI font rendering
• stb_image — image thumbnail loading
• libssh — SSH/SFTP (linked, integration in progress)
• libarchive — archive support (linked, integration pending)

Roadmap

See FEATURES.md for the comprehensive list of working, broken, and missing features.

Next priorities:

1. Fix search input + right-click context menu
2. Add multi-select, cut/copy/paste, new folder
3. SSH/SFTP browsing with ~/.ssh/config parsing
4. Built-in terminal emulator (local + SSH)
5. Quick Look and the preview panel

Author

@Abdulkader-Safi