SpaceKnife draws every folder and file as a block of a nested treemap, sized by the space it takes, so the space hogs stand out at a glance. It scans in parallel (or reads the NTFS Master File Table for a quick scan), can cap the disk load it causes, keeps watching for changes after the scan, and saves a snapshot after each scan so you can see what grew and what is new. Deleting goes to the recycle bin and can be undone. The interface is available in English and Simplified Chinese.
SpaceKnife is an independent project inspired by SpaceSniffer. It is not affiliated with SpaceSniffer or its author.
Screenshots
The screenshots show mock data: a made-up 2 TB data drive generated by cargo run -p sk-store --example mock_snapshot, not a real disk.
Treemap: the area of a block is its disk usage, nested folder by folder. Hovering shows size, type and dates; the side panel shows the selection and its largest items.
Filter: :class:Video;>1gb keeps only videos larger than 1 GB lit and dims the rest; the matches are listed on the right, sortable and one click away in the treemap.
Snapshot comparison: against a snapshot from five weeks earlier, orange grew and blue shrank, new and deleted items are marked; the side panel shows the net growth, the biggest changes and when free space runs out at the current rate.
Command palette (Ctrl+K): search the whole scan by name and run any command.
Features
- Live treemap: WebGL rendering that fills in while the scan runs; zoom animation, hover details, detail levels, grouping of small items, free and unknown space drawn as blocks; split view for two views side by side.
- Three visualizations: treemap, flame graph and polar flame graph. Switch at any time, even while the scan runs; each view keeps its own.
- Fast: parallel directory walking in Rust; on Windows a quick scan reads the NTFS Master File Table (through a read-only helper that asks for administrator rights).
- Polite to your disk: the scan can cap the disk load it causes (max / balanced / quiet / idle / custom) and backs off when other programs need the disk.
- Live monitoring: after the scan, changes keep flowing in (Windows ReadDirectoryChangesW with USN journal catch-up; Linux inotify, falling back to polling when watches run out; macOS FSEvents); changed blocks flash.
- Filter language: by name, type, size, dates, attributes and tags, combinable; compatible with SpaceSniffer-style filters, with extensions (syntax, in Chinese).
- Snapshots and comparison: a snapshot is saved after each scan; compare any two, or a snapshot with now, showing only growth or only shrinkage.
- Safe cleanup: context menu and a delete basket; items go to the recycle bin by default and can be restored; system and program folders are protected.
- Export and command line: CSV / JSON / HTML and other templates;
spaceknife-cli scan / run / snapshot in a terminal, and spaceknife-cli headless to use SpaceKnife from a browser.
- Two languages: English and Simplified Chinese, following the system language, switchable at any time.
Download
Installers are on the Releases page (currently a pre-release):
| System | File |
|---|
| Windows 10+ x64 | SpaceKnife-<version>-Setup-x64.exe (for the current user or all users; installs the WebView2 Runtime if it is missing; not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns about an unknown publisher on first run: "More info › Run anyway") |
| Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+ | spaceknife_<version>_amd64.deb (needs WebKitGTK 4.1; apt installs it) |
| RHEL 9+ / Fedora family | spaceknife-<version>.x86_64.rpm |
| Other Linux x64 | SpaceKnife-<version>-x86_64.AppImage (needs FUSE 2, or run it with --appimage-extract-and-run) |
| Windows 10+ x64, portable | SpaceKnife-<version>-win-x64-portable.zip (no installation: unzip anywhere and run SpaceKnife.exe; snapshots and settings stay in the data folder next to it; needs the WebView2 Runtime, which Windows 11 has; the first launch takes a few seconds longer while Windows checks the new files) |
| Linux x64 / arm64, portable, small | SpaceKnife-<version>-linux-<x64 or arm64>-tauri.tar.gz (extract anywhere and run ./spaceknife, no FUSE needed; data stays in the data folder next to it; uses the system's WebKitGTK 4.1, so not for RHEL 9) |
| Linux x64 / arm64, portable, any distribution | SpaceKnife-<version>-linux-<x64 or arm64>-portable.tar.gz (the same, with its own engine (Electron), so it runs on RHEL 9 too; the name of 0.3.4's Linux portable) |
| Windows 11 on ARM, portable | SpaceKnife-<version>-win-arm64-portable.zip (the Windows portable, built for arm64; the installers are x64 only) |
| macOS 14+, Apple Silicon | SpaceKnife-<version>-mac-arm64.dmg (preview: not notarized yet, see below) |
| macOS 14+, Intel | SpaceKnife-<version>-mac-x64.dmg (preview: not notarized yet, see below) |
| macOS 14+, portable | SpaceKnife-<version>-mac-<arm64 or x64>-portable.zip (unzip anywhere and open SpaceKnife.app; data stays in the data folder next to it; allow it once as below) |
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
