Download

Search your Mac by what you remember.

Press Option + Space and type "code that sends the welcome email" or "cat on a sofa", and SearchBetter looks at file names, the words inside your files, and what your documents, code and images are about. The AI model runs on your Mac, and your files stay there.

Download for Mac

dmg · free and open source · Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later

Or paste this into Claude Code, Codex or Droid

Install SearchBetter for me (from GitHub)

On your iPhone? SearchBetter is a Mac app. Copy the prompt here and paste it on your Mac. Universal Clipboard carries it across.

Three searches on a demo folder of 126 files

File names don't matter anymore.

What your Mac calls it
What you typed

Found in

Each frame is the real app's result for the letters typed so far. The time is the real search time.

The same search, 20 seconds

Spotlight found articles from the internet. SearchBetter found the pictures on your Mac.

20 seconds, with sound

1.20 s

Spotlight

after the last key

0.03 s

SearchBetter

after the last key

Recorded on my Mac.

Your files stay on your Mac.

  • Internet

    The model download is the only time the app uses the internet. Search runs on your Mac through a local copy of llama-server, and the app sends nothing else out.

  • Reads

    It reads your home folder, except hidden folders, ~/Library and build folders such as node_modules.

  • Skips

    It does not read key files, or files with secret, password, token, credential or api_key in the name.

The index is at ~/Library/Application Support/mac-search/, and deleting that folder removes all of it.

The code is on GitHub under the MIT licence. Read the code

Get it running

  1. 1

    Drag it to Applications

    Open the disk image and drag SearchBetter to Applications. If macOS blocks the first open, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

  2. 2

    Click Set Up

    The setup screen downloads a 310 MB search model. macOS then asks for access to Desktop, Documents and Downloads, once for each folder.

  3. 3

    Search while it reads

    File names are searchable right away, and search finds more as the first read goes on. It can take 15 minutes or more. Keep the Mac plugged in; below 50% battery, the reading waits for power.

Download for Mac

dmg · free and open source · Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later

Or paste this into Claude Code, Codex or Droid

Install SearchBetter for me (from GitHub)