Vault

A minimal, cross-platform file manager aiming to replace Finder (macOS) and Windows File Explorer — fast, lightweight, and free of feature bloat.

A file manager that behaves like a command palette, not a filing cabinet: search-first navigation, zero chrome, keyboard-first, instant everything. Full design spec: docs/SPEC.md.

Goals

• Fast startup, low resource usage
• Keyboard-first navigation, full mouse support
• Cross-platform: macOS and Windows at minimum (Linux as a stretch goal)
• Clean, minimal UI — no unnecessary chrome or feature creep
• Feels native on each platform it targets

Stack

• Shell: Wails v3 (Go backend + native webview)
• Frontend: React 18 + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS, virtualized lists/grid via TanStack Virtual, Zustand for UI state, Shiki for code preview syntax highlighting
• Search: Go-side fuzzy matcher (sahilm/fuzzy) over an in-memory index of the home directory, ranked by match quality → recency → frequency; incremental updates via fsnotify
• Trash: OS-native trash/recycle-bin per platform adapter — never a permanent delete
• Thumbnails: image thumbnails decoded/resized/cached on disk by a bounded Go worker pool

Architecture

main.go                    Wails app entry: window, theming, service registration
cmd/vault-mcp/              MCP server entry point (Claude Desktop / Cursor / MCP clients)
internal/core/             platform-neutral: dir listing, file ops, search index, frecency,
                            fsnotify watchers, thumbnail generation — no OS-specific APIs
internal/platform/          NewTrasher() build-tag dispatch shared by main.go and cmd/vault-mcp
internal/platform/darwin/  macOS adapter: Trash (~/.Trash)
internal/platform/windows/ Windows adapter: Recycle Bin (SHFileOperationW) — cross-compiles
                            clean but is unverified at runtime (no Windows box in dev/CI here)
internal/service/          thin Wails-bound services (Files, Search, Pinned) exposed to the
                            frontend; call only into internal/core
internal/mcp/               MCP tool server (9 tools) wrapping internal/core for cmd/vault-mcp
frontend/                  React + TypeScript + Tailwind UI; talks to internal/service via
                            generated Wails bindings (frontend/bindings/); lib/chatTools.ts +
                            lib/llmClient.ts + components/ChatPanel.tsx are the embedded
                            AI assistant, calling the same lib/vault.ts operations

See .cursor/rules/architecture.mdc for the full boundary rules (core stays UI-agnostic; OS-specific behavior stays in one adapter per OS).

Keyboard map

Key	Action
Type anywhere	Search (top bar is always focused on launch)
Esc	Clear search, return to Home
↑ ↓	Move selection in a list/search results
← → ↑ ↓	Move selection in grid view
Enter	Open selection
Cmd/Ctrl + Enter (in search)	Reveal result's folder in-app
Cmd/Ctrl + ↑	Go to parent folder
Space	Quick preview (image/video/audio/PDF/text/code)
← → ↑ ↓ (preview open)	Move to previous/next file
Cmd/Ctrl + K	Command palette
F2	Rename selection
Cmd/Ctrl + N	New folder
Cmd/Ctrl + C (via palette "Copy") / Cmd/Ctrl + V	Copy / paste
Cmd/Ctrl + Z	Undo (rename/move only)
Drag file/folder onto the pinned rail	Pin it; drag within the rail to reorder

Non-goals (MVP)

No tabs, split panes, cloud integrations, network drives, bulk metadata editing, a general third-party plugin system, or file tagging. See docs/SPEC.md §7 for the full list — this does not exclude the AI integration described below, which is a defined, first-party feature.

AI Integration

Vault exposes the same 9 file operations (list directory, search, read file, move, rename, paste-into, new folder, trash, list pinned) two ways — see docs/SPEC.md §10 for the design rationale:

MCP server (Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP clients)

make mcp-build                    # builds bin/vault-mcp
./bin/vault-mcp --root ~/Projects # optional: restrict to a directory (defaults to $HOME)
./bin/vault-mcp --http :8090      # optional: serve over streamable HTTP instead of stdio

Add it to Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/bin/vault-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Or to Cursor's .cursor/mcp.json (project-level) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/bin/vault-mcp"
    }
  }
}

File operations are confined to --root (default $HOME) — a path outside it is rejected. Deletion always goes to the OS trash, never a permanent delete.

Embedded chat panel

Click the assistant icon in the top bar, then set a provider (Claude or ChatGPT) and API key in Settings. The key is stored locally in the browser's localStorage — see docs/STATUS.md for the plaintext-storage caveat.

Performance

Measured against the four targets in docs/SPEC.md §8 — cold start, search latency at 200k files, scroll at 50k entries, idle RAM — on an Apple M3 Pro, production build:

Three of four comfortably clear their target; search latency mostly does, with one worst-case gap (a broad query, scoped to a folder, matching every entry) — see docs/PERFORMANCE.md for the full numbers, the caveat, and exactly how each figure was produced (all reproducible: a committed Go benchmark plus three manual procedures).

Status

All ten build-order steps (including AI integration) are implemented and validated. See docs/STATUS.md for the checklist and a list of known limitations (Windows runtime verification, video thumbnails, "Open With…", .msi packaging, chat API key storage).

Development

• Design spec and non-goals: docs/SPEC.md
• Coding conventions and workflow live in .cursor/rules/ (TDD, core/UI/platform-adapter boundaries, commit discipline, response style)
• Commits are prepared by AI tooling but always reviewed and executed by a human (.cursor/rules/git-commits.mdc)

Setup

go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/cmd/wails3@v3.0.0-alpha2.117  # once, if wails3 isn't on PATH
cd frontend && npm install && cd ..

Run

wails3 dev                       # dev mode, hot reload
wails3 build && ./bin/vault      # production build, run directly

Package

wails3 package                   # bin/vault.app (ad-hoc signed)
wails3 task package:dmg          # bin/vault.dmg (macOS only, via hdiutil)
wails3 task windows:package GOOS=windows   # NSIS .exe installer (cross-compiled; see docs/STATUS.md)

Test

go build ./...
go vet ./...
go test -race -cover ./...        # internal/core, internal/mcp, internal/service, internal/platform/darwin
GOOS=windows go build ./... && GOOS=windows go vet ./...   # windows adapter compile check

cd frontend
npx tsc --noEmit
npx vitest run
npm run build

golangci-lint isn't installed in this environment; run golangci-lint run if you have it available locally.

License

MIT