Axolotl Commander

Why

For years I used Salamander on Windows: two panels, everything from the keyboard, a quick look at a file with F3, comparing files and whole folders, archives and FTP as ordinary folders. Nothing on the Mac felt like that. The Finder is slow for serious file work and a lot of things simply cannot be done in it.

Axolotl Commander is an attempt to have the same on the Mac, as a real macOS app (Swift, AppKit, Trash, Keychain, Quick Look, Finder tags) rather than a ported Windows program. If you are missing a Salamander, Total Commander or Norton Commander-style (orthodox, dual-pane) file manager on the Mac, this is for you.

Inspiration

The behavior, key layout, commands and dialogs follow Tandem Commander, which builds on Open Salamander (formerly Altap Salamander). The reference was the behavior of these programs and their help. The code is written from scratch; nothing was taken from their source code (see NOTICE).

Axolotl Commander is not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors of Tandem Commander or Open Salamander.

Built with AI — please read before use

This project is AI-written and spec-driven: the code is written by the AI assistant Claude Code by Anthropic, following specifications that the maintainer agrees on first. The maintainer decides what the program should do and how, tries it out and decides on changes, but not every line has had a detailed human review.

The base program was built in the stages of docs/PLAN.md; since then, a feature comes about like this:

1. Specification first. Every feature starts as a specification in specs/NNN-name/ made with Spec Kit: user stories with priorities, acceptance scenarios that can be checked from the keyboard, edge cases, what is out of scope, and every deviation from the reference program.
2. Maintainer approval. Nothing is planned or coded until the maintainer has agreed on the specification.
3. Plan, tasks, code and tests. The AI writes the technical plan, the task list and the implementation with automated tests, then checks the scenarios in a separate test copy of the app, in temporary folders only.
4. The specification stays the source of truth. Anything that changes during development is first recorded in the specification (a dated Clarifications entry), so code and specification never drift apart.

Examples: 001-data-safety-gaps, 002-function-key-bar, 003-breadcrumb-path-bar.

What that means for you:

• This is early development software, provided without warranty, as the GPL says.
• Data safety comes first. File operations are covered by automated tests (more than 600, all running in temporary folders only): a complete write before a file is replaced, file identity instead of comparing path strings, refusing to copy something into itself, deleting to the Trash with a clear report of what failed. Still:
• Keep a backup of important data (Time Machine). Please report bugs in the issues; if a bug could lose data, label it data-safety.

Features

• Panels: two panels with tabs, detailed and brief view, sorting, filters, selection by mask, favorite and recent paths, volume information.
• Operations: copy, move, delete to the Trash, rename (also batch rename, with ⌘Z undo), new folder, symbolic and hard links (also pasted as links), going to a link's target, attributes, permissions and Finder tags (⌃F2), checksums, folder sizes, disk map. Drag and drop works too.
• Viewing: text and hex viewer with encoding detection, wrapping and search. Preview of Markdown, HTML (without scripts) and images, plus Quick Look (⌘Y).
• Comparing: two files side by side, and the contents of both panels (folders).
• Archives: ZIP, 7z and tar (gz/bz2/xz) open like folders; you can copy into them and edit their contents. Encrypted ZIP, and RAR (read-only).
• Servers: SFTP (through the system ssh, so your ~/.ssh/config applies) and FTP/FTPS, passwords in the Keychain, name encodings for older servers.
• Find: by name and content, duplicate search, results can be sent to a panel.
• Customization: command line, user menu (F9), custom keyboard shortcuts. English and Czech user interface.

Installation

Prebuilt app

1. Download Axolotl-Commander-<version>.dmg (or .zip) from Releases. The app is universal (Apple silicon and Intel) and needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later.
2. Drag Axolotl Commander into the Applications folder.
3. First launch: until the releases are signed with an Apple Developer ID, macOS blocks the app with a message that it cannot be verified. Click Done, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to Axolotl Commander (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Axolotl Commander.app"). This is needed once for every downloaded version. Folder access you granted stays across updates, because the releases are signed with the same project certificate.

Checksums of the downloads are in SHA256SUMS.txt attached to each release.

From source

You need macOS 15+ and Swift 6.2: either Xcode 26 or just the Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

git clone https://github.com/axolotlcommander/axolotl-commander.git
cd axolotl-commander

swift run AxolotlCommander     # quick start without installing
swift test                     # core tests (run in temporary folders only)

scripts/bundle.sh release      # builds build/Axolotl Commander.app
scripts/install.sh             # installs into ~/Applications and puts an alias on the Desktop

scripts/install.sh quits a running Axolotl Commander before replacing it with the new build. UNIVERSAL=1 scripts/bundle.sh release builds the app for both architectures.

Getting started

Function keys. On a Mac, F1–F12 control brightness, volume and so on by default. Either hold fn, or turn on System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Function Keys → Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys (Settings → Keyboard in the app shows the current state and opens that page). The bar at the bottom of the window shows what F1–F12 do and runs them with a click; hold ⇧, ⌃, ⌥ or ⌘ to see the other commands. The bar and the command line can be hidden in the View menu. Clashes with system shortcuts (Mission Control, Spotlight) can be resolved in the app's settings (⌘,) under Keyboard, where every command can be remapped.

Path bar. Above each panel the current folder is shown as breadcrumbs: click any part to go there, ⌘-click to open it in a new tab, right-click for more (other panel, copy path, hot path, Finder). To type a path, press ⌘L or click right of the path. Settings → Appearance switches back to the plain text field.

Volume bar. Above the path bar sit the mounted volumes, then iCloud Drive, Network and a button for every open SFTP/FTP/FTPS connection. A server button returns the panel to the folder it left there; hover over it and click ⏏ to disconnect, or right-click for more. Network shows the Network folder in the panel: the SMB, AFP and SFTP servers that announce themselves on the local network and the mounted network volumes. Enter on an SMB or AFP server asks for the login and the share in the macOS dialog and enters the mounted share; Enter on an SFTP server opens Connect to Server with its address. Right-click Network for a quick menu of mounted network volumes, open connections and Connect to Server… (also in the toolbar, ⌘K). Settings → Appearance chooses what the bar shows, including an optional Home button.

Key	Command	Key	Command
Tab	switch panel	F7	new folder
F2	rename	F8	move to Trash
F3	view	⇧F8	delete permanently
F4	edit	F9	user menu
F5	copy	⌃F10	compare panels
F6	move	⌘Y	Quick Look
⌘F	find files	⌘K	connect to server
⇧F7 / ⌘⇧G	go to folder	⌘,	settings

All commands and their shortcuts are in the menus.

Permissions. The first time you open the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, iCloud Drive, or a network or removable volume, macOS asks whether to allow access, once per place. The Network folder needs access to the local network, which macOS asks for the first time it is shown. For folders protected by the system (such as ~/Library/Mail) you can add the app to Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, but it is not required. If you build the app yourself, scripts/bundle.sh signs it with your "Apple Development" certificate when you have one (a free Apple ID in Xcode is enough), so macOS keeps the granted access across rebuilds; without it the build is ad-hoc signed and macOS asks again after every build.

Uninstalling. Delete the app and, if you like, the settings in ~/Library/Preferences/cz.acidek.axolotlcommander.plist and the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Axolotl Commander. Saved server passwords are in the Keychain Access app, with "(Axolotl Commander)" in their name.

Contributing

Help is welcome: bug reports, ideas, translations and pull requests. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Two rules are binding:

• tests work only in temporary folders, never on real data,
• the implementation is clean-room: the reference program's source code is not read or copied.

Everything in the repository is in English; issues and pull requests can be discussed in English or Czech. The Code of Conduct applies. Report security issues as described in SECURITY.md. Changes are listed in CHANGELOG.md.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the authors of Open Salamander and Tandem Commander for decades of work on a keyboard-driven file manager and for releasing it as free software (GPL-2.0-or-later). Thanks also to the authors of the libraries the app uses: libarchive, libcurl, swift-markdown and cmark (see THIRD_PARTY.md).

License

Axolotl Commander is free software under the GNU GPL version 3 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later). Authors: AUTHORS.