XeFM — a dual-pane file manager for the desktop and the terminal

XeFM — short for Xenolith File Manager — is a powerful file manager that runs as a native desktop application on Windows and macOS, and in the terminal on all platforms — Windows, macOS, and Linux. Navigate your filesystem with keyboard shortcuts in a clean, intuitive dual-pane interface with comprehensive file operations, rich built-in viewers, themeable visual effects, and professional-grade features.

Key Features

• Cross-platform - Native desktop app on Windows and macOS; terminal (TUI) app on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Dual-pane interface with independent navigation and cross-pane operations
• Archive browsing - Navigate ZIP, TAR, and compressed archives as virtual directories
• SFTP support - Browse and manage remote servers via SSH with optimized performance
• AWS S3 support for cloud storage operations
• Advanced search with real-time filtering and background processing
• Multi-selection with bulk operations and progress tracking
• Rich built-in viewers - Syntax-highlighted text, images, Markdown, JSON, and CSV/TSV
• Themes & visual effects - A dozen built-in themes; desktop mode adds GPU background animations, CRT/phosphor screen effects, and text-reveal animations
• External program integration with configurable launchers
• Customizable - Fully configurable key bindings and settings

Quick Start

Installation

Pick the install that matches how you want to run XeFM:

	Get it from	Gives you
Desktop app — Windows, macOS	the latest release	A real installed application: own icon, Dock / Start-menu entry, own file permissions. No Python needed.
Terminal app — Windows, macOS, Linux	PyPI	The xefm command in any terminal, including over SSH. Needs Python 3.10+.

The two coexist and share their settings in ~/.xefm/ — installing both is a perfectly normal setup.

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)

Download from the latest release — these packages bundle their own Python, so there is nothing else to install:

Platform	Asset	Install
macOS 10.13+	XeFM-<version>-macos.dmg	Open the DMG and drag XeFM to Applications. Signed with the author's Apple Developer ID.
Windows 10/11 x64	XeFM-<version>-win64.zip	Portable folder: unblock the zip, extract anywhere, run XeFM.exe. Not code-signed yet — SmartScreen warns once, see below.

Then launch it like any other app — Launchpad or Spotlight on macOS, the Start menu on Windows.

Use the package, not --backend gui. XeFM can open the same window from a terminal, but that path is for developing XeFM, not for using it: on macOS the file-access permissions get attributed to your terminal instead of to XeFM, both platforms show the Python interpreter's icon in the Dock / taskbar, and you need a terminal window open the whole time. The installed app has none of those problems. See Why not xefm --backend gui?.

XeFM is also awaiting certification on the Microsoft Store. Once it is live the Store becomes the recommended Windows install — one click, automatic updates, and no SmartScreen prompt.

Windows: unblocking the unsigned zip

Code signing for Windows comes with the Store submission, which is still in certification. Until then the zip is unsigned, and Windows marks anything downloaded from the internet:

1. Right-click the downloaded zip → Properties → tick Unblock → OK. Doing this before extracting clears the mark on every extracted file at once.
2. Extract the XeFM folder wherever you like — for example %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\XeFM (no admin rights needed).
3. Run XeFM.exe. If you skipped step 1, SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" — click More info → Run anyway. It asks only once per download.

The bundle is self-contained and writes nothing outside its own folder and %USERPROFILE%\.xefm\, so uninstalling is deleting the folder. Would rather not run an unsigned binary at all? Wait for the Store listing, or use the terminal app below.

Full details, including macOS Gatekeeper notes, are in the Desktop Mode Guide.

Terminal app (Windows, macOS, Linux)

XeFM is on PyPI. Install it as a tool and run it — no checkout and no virtualenv to manage:

pipx install xefm     # or:  uv tool install xefm,  or:  pip install xefm
xefm

pipx and uv keep XeFM in its own environment while putting the xefm command on your PATH — the right shape for an application. Or run uvx xefm to try it once without installing anything.

Upgrading and uninstalling use the tool you installed with, so pick the row you started from:

Installed with	Upgrade	Uninstall
pipx install xefm	pipx upgrade xefm	pipx uninstall xefm
uv tool install xefm	uv tool upgrade xefm	uv tool uninstall xefm
pip install xefm	pip install --upgrade xefm	pip uninstall xefm

These are not interchangeable: each tool only knows about what it installed itself. uv tool upgrade xefm on a pipx- or pip-installed copy fails with `xefm` is not installed, and uvx xefm installs nothing at all, so there is never anything for it to upgrade.

Python 3.10 or later is the only prerequisite. This is the install to use for SSH sessions, remote servers, Linux, and terminal-centric workflows — and the only one available on Linux.

From source

Working on XeFM itself? Use a checkout instead:

git clone https://github.com/crftwr/xefm.git
cd xefm
make venv        # creates .venv with every dependency
make run         # launch XeFM through it, no activation needed

make help lists the rest — editable install, PuiKit co-development, and the macOS / Windows app bundles.

Essential Controls

• Navigate: ↑↓ to move up/down, ←→ to switch panes/navigate directories
• Enter archives: Press Enter on .zip, .tar, .tar.gz files to browse contents
• Select: Space to select/deselect files, A for all files, Shift-A for all items
• File operations: C (copy), M (move), K (delete), R (rename)
• Help: ? for comprehensive help dialog
• Quit: Q to exit

Help System

Press ? to open the comprehensive help dialog with all key bindings and features organized by category. The help dialog is your quick reference guide - no need to memorize all shortcuts!

Documentation

For comprehensive information about XeFM's features and usage:

User Documentation

• Complete User Guide - Comprehensive guide covering all features, configuration, and usage
• Configuration - Complete configuration reference and customization guide
• Desktop Mode - Native Windows / macOS desktop app setup and options
• Color Schemes & Visual Effects - Themes, themeable GPU background scenes, and screen effects
• Image Viewer - Built-in zoom / pan image viewer
• Markdown Viewer & JSON / CSV Viewers - Rendered structured-file views
• SFTP Support - Remote server access via SSH with file operations and search
• AWS S3 Support - Cloud storage integration and S3 bucket management
• Archives - Create, extract, and browse archives as directories
• Search Animation - Advanced search features and visual feedback

Developer Documentation

• Path Polymorphism System - Storage-agnostic architecture and extensibility
• Navigation System - Core navigation implementation
• External Programs - Program integration system

Key Features Overview

All key bindings are fully customizable through the configuration system. For complete key binding reference, press ? in XeFM or see the User Guide.

Core Operations

• Navigation: Arrow keys, Tab to switch panes, Enter to open directories/files/archives
• Archive Browsing: Press Enter on .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz files to browse as virtual directories
• File Operations: Copy (C), Move (M), Delete (K), Rename (R)
• Selection: Space to select files, A for all files, Shift-A for all items
• Search: F for incremental search, Shift-F for filename search, Shift-G for content search
• Archives: P to create archives, U to extract, Enter to browse contents
• File Viewers: V to view the selected file — text (syntax-highlighted), images, Markdown, JSON, and CSV/TSV (works inside archives); M toggles rendered/raw in the viewer

Advanced Features

• Favorite Directories: J for quick access to bookmarked locations
• External Programs: X for custom program integration
• Sub-shell Mode: Shift-X to enter shell with XeFM environment variables
• Themes: T to cycle themes; more display options under Z (view options) and Shift-Z (settings)
• Configuration: Shift-Z for settings menu (Z opens view options)
• SFTP Support: Navigate remote servers using ssh://hostname/path syntax
• AWS S3 Support: Navigate S3 buckets using s3://bucket/path syntax

For comprehensive SFTP setup and usage, see the SFTP Support Feature Guide.

For comprehensive S3 setup and usage, see the AWS S3 Support Feature Guide.

Archive Virtual Directory Browsing

XeFM lets you browse archive files as if they were regular directories - no extraction needed!

Supported formats: .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz

How to use:

1. Navigate to any archive file
2. Press Enter to browse its contents
3. Navigate directories inside the archive with arrow keys
4. Press Enter on files to view them
5. Copy files out with C (or your copy key)
6. Search within archives with Alt+F7
7. Press Backspace to exit the archive

What you can do:

• Browse nested directories within archives
• View text files with syntax highlighting
• Copy files and directories from archives to local/S3
• Search for files by name or content
• Select multiple files for batch operations
• Sort by name, size, date, or extension

See Archive Feature for complete documentation.

Built-in File Viewers

Press V (or Enter) to view the selected file. XeFM picks the right viewer for the file type — all of them work seamlessly on local files, inside archives, and on remote SFTP / S3 paths without extraction or download.

Text viewer

A powerful text viewer with syntax highlighting for 20+ file formats.

• Syntax highlighting for Python, JavaScript, JSON, Markdown, YAML, and more
• Line numbers, horizontal scrolling, line wrapping (W), and in-file search
• Multiple encoding support (UTF-8, Latin-1, CP1252)

Rich viewers — Markdown, JSON, CSV/TSV

For structured files, the viewer offers a rendered view in addition to the raw text. Press M inside the viewer to toggle between the formatted and raw views.

Markdown	JSON / JSONL	CSV / TSV
Rendered headings, lists, code, and links	Collapsible, syntax-colored tree (.json, .jsonl, .ndjson)	Column-aligned table grid (.csv, .tsv)

Image viewer

A modal image viewer with zoom, pan, and prev/next navigation through the sibling images in the current pane.

• Supports PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, WebP, TIFF, ICO, and more (via Pillow)
• Renders inline in graphics-capable terminals (iTerm2, kitty, sixel) and in desktop mode; falls back to a metadata card (format / dimensions / size) elsewhere
• Zoom with + / -, pan with the arrow keys or a mouse drag, step through images with prev/next

Themes & Visual Effects

XeFM ships a dozen built-in themes. Press T to cycle to the next theme, or pick one from the View → Theme menu — your choice is remembered across restarts. Define your own in ~/.xefm/config.py and they appear in the picker alongside the built-ins.

Dark+	Monokai	Dracula
Nord	Solarized	Gruvbox Dark
Light+	Solarized Light	Sci-Fi
Cyber	Segment LCD	Shinagawa

The default config also includes a Phosphor sample theme — a monochrome phosphor-green CRT terminal — as a starting point for your own.

Visual effects (desktop mode)

In desktop mode, a theme can carry visual effects that the GPU renders behind and over the interface. Terminal mode simply shows the theme's colors and ignores these.

• Background animations — a slow, on-palette scene drawn behind the panes, rendered as a GPU fragment shader: starfield, rain, hologram, wave, grid, constellation, and datastream.
• Screen post-effects — a full-frame CRT / phosphor look composited over the UI: bloom, glow, scanlines, vignette, and drop shadows.
• Text-reveal animations — filenames and labels arrive rather than appear, decoding or typing into place on a directory change (used by Sci-Fi and Cyber).
• Translucent surfaces — panels and chrome can sit at reduced opacity so the animated background reads through.

Effects are pure theme data — each is a combination of parameters attached to a theme, so a custom theme can mix and match them without any application code.

Sub-shell Mode

Press Shift-X to temporarily suspend XeFM and enter a shell with environment variables providing access to current directories and selected files:

• XEFM_LEFT_DIR, XEFM_RIGHT_DIR - Directory paths for each pane
• XEFM_THIS_DIR, XEFM_OTHER_DIR - Current and other pane directories
• XEFM_LEFT_SELECTED, XEFM_RIGHT_SELECTED - Selected files in each pane
• XEFM_ACTIVE - Set to '1' to indicate XeFM sub-shell mode

Type exit to return to XeFM.

Advanced Features

• Native Desktop App: Run in a real window on Windows and macOS with GPU rendering, or in any terminal — same keyboard-driven interface
• Archive Virtual Directories: Browse ZIP, TAR, and compressed archives as if they were directories - navigate, search, view files, and copy contents without extraction
• SFTP Support: Access remote servers via SSH with full file operations, search, and optimized performance through connection multiplexing and bulk operations
• AWS S3 Support: Navigate and manage S3 buckets with seamless local/remote operations
• Rich Viewers: Built-in viewers for text (syntax-highlighted), images (zoom/pan), Markdown, JSON, and CSV/TSV — plus text and directory diff viewers
• Themes & Effects: A dozen built-in themes with GPU background animations, CRT/phosphor screen effects, and text-reveal animations in desktop mode
• Batch Rename: Regex-based renaming with capture groups and macros
• Threaded Search: Non-blocking filename and content search with progress tracking (works inside archives and on remote servers)
• Pane Management: Resizable layout, directory sync, state persistence
• External Integration: VSCode, Beyond Compare, and custom program support

For detailed information on all features, see the User Guide.

Command Line Options

These apply to the terminal install (pipx install xefm) and to source checkouts. The desktop packages take no arguments — their launcher starts the native backend directly.

# Run in terminal mode (default)
xefm

# Specify startup directories
xefm --left /path/to/projects --right /path/to/documents

# Run in desktop mode — for XeFM development; install the desktop package instead
xefm --backend gui

# Help and version
xefm --help
xefm --version

The full flag set is just --backend {tui,curses,gui,macos,windows}, --left DIR, --right DIR, --version, and --help.

Every line above also works as python3 -m xefm … when you are running from a source checkout, where no xefm console command is installed.

Backend Selection

XeFM supports two rendering backends, chosen with --backend:

• Terminal Mode (--backend tui, alias curses): traditional terminal interface, works on all platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux) — the default
• Desktop Mode (--backend gui): native desktop window on Windows (Direct2D/DirectWrite) or macOS (CoreGraphics, via PyObjC). The gui alias resolves to the right backend for the current platform; windows / macos name them explicitly. For everyday desktop use install the desktop package instead — this flag is the development path, and comes with the caveats of running a GUI out of a terminal.

Desktop mode provides:

• Native window with resizing and full-screen support
• Customizable fonts (MONO_FONT_NAME / UI_FONT_NAME / FONT_SIZE)
• Window size and position remembered automatically across runs
• Better color accuracy with true RGB colors, plus GPU-rendered theme background animations and screen effects

See the Desktop Mode Guide for detailed desktop mode configuration.

Configuration

XeFM is highly configurable through ~/.xefm/config.py. Access configuration via the Settings menu (Shift-Z key) or edit manually.

Key areas:

• Themes, color schemes, and visual effects (including custom themes)
• Key bindings (fully customizable)
• External programs, file associations, and text editor
• Favorite directories and startup paths
• Performance and behavior settings

For detailed configuration options, see the Configuration Feature Guide and the User Guide.

Project Structure

xefm/
├── xefm/          # The `xefm` package — everything the app ships
│   ├── app.py     # The application (XeFMApp + top-level UI)
│   ├── __main__.py # `python -m xefm` entry point
│   ├── *.py       # Business logic, imported as `xefm.config`, `xefm.path`, …
│   └── tools/     # External programs for end users
├── tools/         # Development tools and utilities
├── test/          # Test files (1000+ passing tests)
└── doc/           # User documentation
    └── dev/       # Developer documentation

Troubleshooting

Installation Issues:

• Ensure Python 3.10+ is installed
• xefm: command not found after pip install xefm — the console script landed in an environment that is not on your PATH; pipx install xefm or uv tool install xefm handle that for you (or run it as python3 -m xefm)
• error: externally-managed-environment from pip — PEP 668 is protecting a system Python (Homebrew, Debian/Ubuntu); use pipx, uv, or a virtualenv
• `xefm` is not installed from uv tool upgrade xefm — uv only manages what uv tool install put there, so this means pipx or pip owns your copy (or uvx ran it without installing). Upgrade with the tool you installed with — see the table in Terminal app
• Check terminal compatibility with curses library (terminal mode)

Desktop Mode Issues:

• Desktop mode runs on Windows and macOS; on other platforms use terminal mode
• Generic Python icon in the Dock / taskbar, or macOS permission prompts naming your terminal instead of XeFM — symptoms of launching with --backend gui; install the desktop package instead
• "Windows protected your PC" when launching the downloaded XeFM.exe — the zip is not code-signed yet (Microsoft Store submission pending); click More info → Run anyway, or unblock the zip before extracting (details)
• "XeFM cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified" on macOS — right-click XeFM.app in Applications and choose Open, then confirm once
• On macOS, if PyObjC is missing XeFM automatically falls back to terminal mode
• Check console output for backend initialization messages
• See Desktop Mode Guide for detailed setup

Performance Issues:

• Check available memory for large directory operations
• First access to large archives may be slow while structure is cached
• Desktop mode provides better performance with GPU acceleration

Archive Issues:

• Verify archive file is not corrupted
• Ensure you have read permissions for the archive
• Check supported formats: .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz
• Archives are read-only - use copy operations to extract files

For detailed troubleshooting, see the User Guide.

Contact Author

Have questions, suggestions, or found a bug? Get in touch:

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/crftwr/xefm
• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features
• PyPI: pypi.org/project/xefm — released versions (pipx install xefm)
• Author's X (Twitter): @smmrtmnr

We welcome feedback and contributions to make XeFM even better!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Issues: Create an issue on the project repository
• Documentation: Review files in doc/ and doc/dev/ directories
• User Guide: See XEFM_USER_GUIDE.md for comprehensive information