Inlet

A free, open-source Mac app that keeps your Downloads folder clean and finds any file you describe.

tech-reign-era-services.github.io/inlet

• Tidy: Inlet sorts downloads into folders (Images, Documents, Installers and more), either automatically as they finish or when you click one button.
• Find: type what you remember, like “pdfs from github last week” or “the contract I signed in July”, and Inlet finds it. It even knows which website a file came from after macOS has forgotten.

Nothing is ever deleted or overwritten, everything can be undone with ⌘Z, and your files never leave your Mac: no account, no cloud, no tracking.

Download

Get Inlet-<version>.pkg from Releases. It's one installer for every Mac, Apple silicon and Intel alike. Needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.

Install

1. Open the .pkg. The first time, macOS may stop you (see below).
2. Click Continue on the welcome page, then Continue and Agree on the license.
3. Click Install, and enter your Mac password when asked (Inlet goes into your Applications folder).
4. When it's done, click Close. Inlet opens by itself and puts its icon in the menu bar.

"Apple could not verify…" the first time

Inlet is free and not signed with a paid Apple Developer certificate, so macOS asks you to confirm before running the installer. This happens once, for the installer only:

• Right-click the .pkg, choose Open, then click Open again, or
• If there's no Open button (newer macOS): try to open it once and close the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Inlet.

Update or uninstall

• Update: when a new version is out, Inlet tells you. Click Update and it downloads the installer, checks it matches the release, and opens it. Or choose Inlet → Check for Updates…, or run the new installer yourself. It asks you to quit Inlet first, then replaces it. Your settings and history are kept.
• Uninstall: quit Inlet from its menu bar icon and move it from Applications to the Trash. To remove its settings and history too, delete ~/Library/Application Support/Inlet.

When Inlet first reads your Downloads folder, macOS asks for permission. Click Allow.

What it does

Find files by describing them

Press ⌘F and type what you remember about a file, in your own words:

You type	Inlet looks for
pdfs from github last week	PDFs · downloaded from github.com · during last week
big videos I haven't opened in a month	videos · over 50 MB · not opened in 30 days
the contract I signed in July	“contract” or “signed” in the name or text · from July
airdropped photos	images · received with AirDrop
what did Inlet move today	today's moves, from Inlet's own history

• It shows what it understood as chips, like .pdf from github last week. Remove any chip to widen the search.
• Every result says why it matched, and where the file came from.
• It searches what's inside files too: the text of PDFs, Word, Pages, Excel and text files.
• Grab what you find: gather results into a folder (undoable), preview with Space, drag them out, copy their paths, or show them in Finder.
• Fast on big folders: code projects are left out unless you ask, so most searches take about a second or less.
• No AI service, nothing sent anywhere. It uses macOS Spotlight and Inlet's own records.

Remembers where files came from

macOS forgets which website a file came from when you unzip it, AirDrop it or save it from another app. Inlet notes the website and the app of every download the moment it arrives, and files unzipped from an archive keep the archive's source. Hover over a file to see it, search by it (“stuff from figma”), or sort by it with rules. You can see, export or clear this history in Settings → Download history.

Keeps Downloads tidy

• Manual or Auto. In Manual mode (the default), you see every file, where it will go and why, before anything moves. In Auto mode, each new download is sorted once it has finished downloading. Half-finished .crdownload, .part and .download files are never touched.
• Scheduled tidy. A daily sweep at a time you choose.
• More than Downloads. Watch Desktop (where screenshots land) or any other folder. Each folder can have its own mode.
• Rules. Match files by name, extension, size, age, the website they came from, their Finder kind, or the text inside them. Rules can rename files as they move them, e.g. scan0001.pdf → Documents/Scans/Scan 2026-09-25.pdf.
• It learns. Change where Inlet puts a file (in the app or by dragging it in Finder) and it suggests a rule for next time. Drag a file back into Downloads and Inlet leaves it alone.
• Cleanup. Find files you haven't opened in months, and duplicate files. Archive or remove them. Removed files wait 30 days in a hidden holding folder so you can undo, then go to the Trash.
• Your rules on every Mac. Export and import your rules, or keep them in sync through a folder like iCloud Drive.
• Folders are left alone. Project folders and anything that isn't a loose file stay where they are, unless you choose otherwise.

Looking for the Shelf?

The Shelf, a drawer in the notch for files, text and links, used to be part of Inlet. Since 1.10 it's its own small app, Ledge, which looks and works the same and is under 1 MB. Anything that was on Inlet's Shelf comes across the first time you open Ledge.

Safe by design

• Nothing is deleted or overwritten. Inlet only moves files. A name clash becomes report (1).pdf.
• Everything is undoable, from the Activity page, the menu bar, or ⌘Z.
• Everything stays on your Mac. The only thing Inlet ever asks the internet is whether there's a new version (from GitHub, sending nothing about you or your files), and you can turn that off in Settings → Updates.

Build it yourself

You need Node.js 20 or later and a Mac.

git clone https://github.com/Tech-Reign-Era-Services/inlet.git
cd inlet
npm install
npm start          # run Inlet from source

To make your own installer:

npm run dist       # → dist/Inlet-<version>.pkg, one installer for Apple silicon and Intel

A build you make yourself opens without the security warning above. To change the installer's pages, edit build/pkg/ (welcome, license and summary pages; the sidebar image is drawn by scripts/make-icons.js).

Development

npm test           # engine tests (sorting, undo, watching, cleanup, rules); no Electron needed

Try it without touching your real Downloads. A sandbox run uses its own settings, so it runs alongside your real Inlet:

INLET_WATCH_DIR=/tmp/fake-downloads INLET_DATA_DIR=/tmp/inlet-data npm start

INLET_SCREENSHOTS=/some/dir captures every page to PNG and quits, which is handy for reviewing UI changes.

Inlet is Electron with a plain HTML/CSS/JS interface (no framework) and no runtime dependencies. The sorting engine in src/main/ doesn't depend on Electron, so it's tested directly with node --test.

Path	What
src/main/classifier.js	Decides where one file goes: ignore checks → custom rules → file-type categories → Other
src/main/organizer.js	Scan (a dry run), move without overwriting (including across disks), undo
src/main/watcher.js	Auto mode: watches folders, skips in-progress downloads, waits until a file stops changing
src/main/cleanup.js	Old-file detection, duplicate finder, the holding folder for removed files
src/main/folders.js	Watched folders: validation, per-folder mode and settings
src/main/spotlight.js	Finder kind and file text, via macOS Spotlight's own tools
src/main/suggest.js, finder.js	Learning from your corrections, in the app and in Finder
src/main/find/	Find: parse.js turns a sentence into a query, and search.js runs it across Spotlight, the download history and Inlet's activity
src/main/portable.js	Rules file format for export/import and sync
src/main/main.js	Window, menu bar, notifications, and the bridge to the interface
src/renderer/	The interface

Settings and history live in ~/Library/Application Support/Inlet/. docs/PLAN.md covers the design and roadmap.

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are all welcome.

• Questions or ideas: Discussions
• Bugs and feature requests: Issues
• Code: read CONTRIBUTING.md first. It covers setup, the safety ground rules, and how pull requests are reviewed. Look for good first issue to get started.
• Security problems: report them privately, as described in SECURITY.md.

Everyone taking part follows the Code of Conduct.

Releasing (maintainers)

1. Bump version in package.json and add an entry to src/main/changelog.js (it's shown in the app's "What's new" window).
2. Commit, then tag and push: git tag v1.6.0 && git push origin v1.6.0.
3. The Release GitHub Action tests the code, builds the universal installer (.pkg), and attaches it to a draft release using the notes in .github/release-notes.md. Review the draft on GitHub, then publish it.

License

MIT © 2026 Tech Reign Era Services. Free to use, change and share.

Inlet was called "Tidy" during early development.