LibreraCommander

Native macOS dual-pane file manager: Finder-style list and grid panels with previews, an info panel (system info, text / Markdown / HTML viewer, audio and video player with metadata, archive and folder info), a built-in terminal, Finder-style Quick Actions, and Android / iOS simulator device panels.

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later (Apple silicon or Intel).

Install

With Homebrew:

brew install foobnix/tap/libreracommander

Update:

brew upgrade libreracommander

Or download the latest DMG from Releases and drag LibreraCommander to Applications.

File access

For access to every folder (and to read Finder’s sidebar favorites) grant it Full Disk Access: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, or the “Grant Full Disk Access” button at the bottom of the sidebar. Without it the sidebar shows standard folders instead of your Finder favorites.

Layout

The layout button at the right of the toolbar opens the layout editor: pick a grid — 1×1, 1×2 (side by side), 2×1 (stacked) or 2×2 — then click each cell to choose what it shows: a File Panel (up to two: left and right), the Info Panel, the Terminal or the Android panel. Choosing a panel already shown in another cell swaps the two. Changes apply immediately and are remembered.

Shortcuts that show or hide panels (⌘J terminal, ⌥⌘I info panel, F1 / F3, ⌥⌘A Android, Two Panels) still work: a hidden panel’s cell collapses and the other panel in its column takes the full height; a panel shown without a cell of its own goes to the nearest free place.

Every panel’s header has an expand button (or press ` in the focused panel): the panel takes its whole column, and gets the focus; expand one panel on each side to show just those two. If the panel already has its column to itself, it fills the window. Press again (or the button) to restore.

• Info panel

  Drives, memory and swap, battery, sound volume and screen brightness sliders — or a Quick Look / text preview of the file under the cursor.

• Viewer and editor

  F3 views a text file, follows the cursor and sizes folders; F4 edits in place and ⌘S saves, keeping encoding and permissions.

• Compare

  Two files side by side, or two folders recursively, by size and date or by content. Pop any comparison out into its own window.

• Media player

  Audio and video in the info panel, with every tag, track, codec, chapter and bit of metadata the file carries.

• Archives

  The file tree of a .zip, .apk, .aab, .jar, .aar or .ipa, read without extracting, with sizes and file counts.

• Git

  ⌘G: branch, changed files, diff of the selected file, Commit / Commit & Push.

Android panel

Choose Android for a layout cell (or press ⌥⌘A) to show an Android panel instead of the right file panel. It uses the Android SDK from ~/Library/Android/sdk (or ANDROID_HOME, or /Volumes/*/Android/sdk). The icons at its top right switch:

• Devices & Emulators — connected phones and running emulators; every AVD with ▶︎ (start inside the panel) or a window icon (start in the emulator’s own window), ■ to stop; Restart ADB if adb gets stuck.
• Screen — the device’s live screen (H.264 stream; screenshots where streaming isn’t available). Click = tap, drag = swipe, scroll = swipe, typing goes to the device (ASCII), Esc = Back; Back/Home/Recents/Volume/Power/Rotate and a screenshot (saved to the left panel’s folder).
• Device Files — the device file tree: double-click folders, ⌫ goes up, F5 downloads to the left panel’s folder, F7 new folder, F8 delete. F5 in the left panel copies its selection to the device’s Download folder (/storage/emulated/0/Download).

Several devices at once: ⌘-click device tabs to group them. Screen and Files then show the group side by side; F5 / upload copy to every grouped device, and ▶︎ Run builds once and installs + launches on each. A plain click on a tab goes back to one device.

iOS simulators are listed under the Android devices, in their own iOS Simulators section (running ones first, then the newest iOS version; older versions are folded). ▶︎ starts one inside the panel, the window icon starts it in its own window, ■ shuts it down. A simulator that’s already running (e.g. started by Xcode) gets an attach button. A started or attached simulator becomes a tab next to the Android devices (marked with the Apple logo); right-click the tab to detach it, open its window or shut it down. Its screen is the simulator’s live framebuffer: press and drag = touch, scroll = swipe, typing goes to the device; the toolbar has Home, volume, the side button, rotate and a screenshot. ⌘-click tabs to group Android and iOS screens side by side. Device Files is Android-only.

⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V work across file panels, Finder and the device file tree: copy (or cut, to move) files in one, paste in another. Pasting into the device tree uses the folder shown there; device files pasted into a file panel are downloaded. Cut files are moved: removed from the device, or moved to the Trash on the Mac.

Run scripts and projects

Shell scripts (.sh, .bash, .zsh, .command) have a green ▶︎ at the end of their name: click it (or ⌘↩, or Run in Terminal in the context menu) to run the script in the terminal from its own folder.

• A folder with an Xcode macOS app project gets ▶︎ Run in the panel header: it builds the Debug configuration in the terminal (errors and warnings shown) and launches the app, restarting a previous run of that build — like ⌘R in Xcode. Several app schemes: a menu; a click runs the last one used.
• An Android Gradle project (a gradlew and an application module) gets ▶︎ Run: it builds the debug variant in the terminal, installs it only on the device selected in the Android panel, and launches it. Projects with several modules or flavors get a menu.
• An Xcode iOS app project gets ▶︎ Run too: it builds for the iOS Simulator once, then installs and launches the app on every iOS simulator in the Android panel’s group (or the one running).
• A Kotlin Multiplatform root (an Android app plus an iosApp-style subfolder with the Xcode project) gets two buttons, ▶︎ Android and ▶︎ iOS.

Terminal

The terminal has four shells: 1 2 3 4 at the top right of its header switch between them, and a green dot marks one that’s running something. ▶︎ Run (Android, iOS, Xcode) and running a script use the shown terminal when it’s free, otherwise the next free one — so an Android build and an iOS build run side by side, each in its own terminal. ■ stops the shown terminal’s task (Ctrl-C). Shells start at high priority, and the app doesn’t nap or let the Mac idle-sleep while a terminal is busy.

Keyboard

These are the defaults. Every shortcut can be changed in Settings (⌘,): click a shortcut to record a new one, + to add another, × to remove it, ↺ to restore the default. Shortcuts with ⌘ work anywhere in the app; shortcuts without ⌘ (F-keys, Return, Tab, …) work while a file panel has focus, so the terminal and text fields keep those keys.

Right-click menu

• Quick Actions — like Finder’s, for the selected files. Pictures: Rotate Left / Right, Create PDF, Convert Image… (JPEG / PNG / HEIF / TIFF), Remove Background. PDFs: Rotate, Create PDF (combine). Video: Trim…, Encode Video… (480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K, H.264 or HEVC, or audio only). Audio: Trim…, Convert to AAC (M4A). Below them: your Automator Quick Actions and your shortcuts.
• Services — other apps’ services that take the selected files, grouped by app.
• Open With — like Finder: the default app first, then every other app that can open the file, then Other…
• Compress / Uncompress — zips the selection; on .zip files, uncompresses them next to themselves instead.

Drag files between panels (or from Finder) to copy them — dragging never moves files; use F6 to move. Drag folders into the sidebar’s Bookmarks section.

Settings → Files → “Open folders with a single click” opens folders on one click. “Image previews in file panels” (on by default) shows pictures as small thumbnails of themselves instead of the generic image icon. “Always open sidebar items in the left panel” sends favorites, bookmarks and locations to the left panel instead of the active one.

Volume and brightness

The info panel’s Sound & Display card controls the default output device (slider, click the speaker to mute) and every display’s brightness: built-in and Apple displays, and external monitors over DDC/CI (Apple silicon). Monitor brightness is read when the panel opens and written as you drag.