File search

Search file and folder names in the folders you choose, using the index macOS already keeps.

Settings → File Search holds the switch. It ships off. While it is off there is no command and no Spotlight work at all.

Open it with the Search Files command, its own global shortcut, or the Search Files row under "Use … with" at the bottom of any launcher search. That last one opens with your text already typed.

It asks for nothing

Tinycast requests no file permission for this. Hidden files and the insides of app bundles are always left out, and no setting can bring them back. That is exactly what keeps the feature permission-free.

If Spotlight has not indexed something, you get fewer results rather than a Full Disk Access prompt.

The screen

With nothing typed, the list shows Recently Used: files you opened in the last 30 days or changed in the last 3 days, inside your search scopes. This comes from macOS's own records. Tinycast keeps no history of its own.

Type and it becomes Results. Each row shows the file's icon and name. A folder also shows its parent folder's name, dimmed, because half the folders on a developer's Mac are called src.

The right side previews the selected file: the file itself, then its name, location, type, size and dates. Videos and audio can be played there. Nothing plays until you press play.

Filtering by type

⌘P, or the All Types button, narrows the search:

All Types · Folders · Documents · Images · Audio · Videos · Archives

The filter changes what Spotlight is asked for, so narrowing never hides matches that were already cut off. It resets each time you open the palette.

Actions

• Quick Look opens a large preview inside the palette, and it plays media straight away. esc or Close puts it away.
• Copy File puts the file itself on the clipboard, ready to paste into Finder or Mail.
• Paste File to … pastes it into the app you opened the palette over.
• Copy Name and Copy Path keep the palette open, so you can copy several in a row.
• Move to Trash does not ask first. Things in the Trash can always come back.

Copies from here land in your clipboard history like any other copy.

Search scopes

Settings → File Search → Search Scopes, set to your home folder by default.

Your home folder means its visible folders, plus Library/CloudStorage and your iCloud Drive. Tinycast never adds ~/Library on its own. If you add a folder inside it yourself, you get what you asked for.

An empty scope list searches nothing, rather than quietly falling back to home.

Scopes are saved with ~ shortened, so a backup still points somewhere sensible on another Mac.

Ignore patterns

Settings → File Search → Ignore Patterns. Three kinds:

Matching ignores case, and * also matches /, so a **/…/** pattern works as written.

The list only holds what you add. Six sensible rules are built in and always apply.

How search works

All the words you type must be in the file name, in any order. annual report finds "Report – annual 2025.pdf".

Spotlight returns at most 1,000 candidates, and at most 200 rows are shown after filtering. Typing waits 120 ms before searching, so a fast typist does not start a search per letter.

Messages you might see