Finder Finder

Finder to find Finder.

日本語版

Finder Finder browses an existing directory of records and connects their files to Quick Look, Finder, the clipboard, and default applications.

Database layout

Set one directory as the database root. Its direct child directories containing metadata.json are records.

Database/
├── 000333/
│   ├── metadata.json
│   ├── measurement.csv
│   └── preview.png
└── experiment-alpha/
    ├── metadata.json
    └── result.pdf

Metadata

Each metadata.json is a JSON object.

{
  "category": "rawdata",
  "display_name": "Example measurement",
  "payload": ["measurement.csv", "notes.pdf"],
  "preview": "preview.png",
  "links": [{ "id": "000271" }, { "id": "experiment-alpha" }]
}

Field	Required	Meaning
category	Yes	Category shown in the app.
display_name	No	Row title. The record ID is used when absent.
payload	Yes for file actions	One record-local filename or an array of filenames.
preview	No	One record-local, Quick Look-compatible display file.
links	No	Array of objects with an id field.

Use paths relative to the record directory. Preview is for display; payload is the source of truth.

Previews

A preview can be any Quick Look-compatible representation created alongside the record.

CSV       → PNG
HDF5      → PNG
structure → PDF
audio     → waveform PNG
dataset   → HTML snapshot

Links

The links window presents directly linked records in both directions and shows each record once.

Actions

Surface or action	Target
Row thumbnail	preview, otherwise the first payload
Quick Look	preview when present; otherwise each payload
Open payload	payload
Reveal in Finder (⌘F)	Metadata from the list; payload from Quick Look
Copy relative path (⌘P)	DB-root-relative record directory from the list; DB-root-relative payload from Quick Look
Copy full path (⌥⌘P)	Record directory from the list; payload from Quick Look
Open Metadata	metadata.json

Configuration

Set the database root on first launch:

FINDER_FINDER_DB_ROOT=/path/to/Database ./build

The setting is stored in ~/.finder-finder/settings.json. Edit dbRoot there to switch databases.

Build

./build

The app is installed at /Applications/Finder Finder.app.

Use ./build --dev for iterative development. Source changes require a rebuild and application restart.