Current
A torrent client that behaves.
Native macOS · Swift 6 · SwiftUI · libtorrent 2.x · Apple Silicon · macOS 26+
10 MB download, 30 MB installed · signed and notarised by Apple · free and MIT-licensed
Current is a native macOS BitTorrent client built around one insight:
torrenting is mostly a background activity. The most useful interface is
not a permanently-open dashboard — it's excellent background automation,
glanceable activity, and fast intervention when something needs you.
So Current is quiet when nothing is happening, informative when something is
happening, and delightful when you interact with it.
It draws its own window chrome and every one of its own controls. There is no
NavigationSplitView, no toolbar, no stock switches — not for novelty, but
because those are precisely the things that make an app look like a stock Mac
utility, and none of them can be restyled far enough to stop.
Scope
Current is a client for a protocol. It ships no trackers, no indexes and no
content sources. It has no search, it cannot find anything, and it does not
suggest anything to you. BitTorrent moves Linux images,
Internet Archive collections, scientific datasets and game patches every day,
and that is what this is for.
That means some things are welcome here and some are not:
Issues are for the app. Bugs, crashes, wrong behaviour, bad layout, a
setting that lies. Those get read and fixed. The bug report template asks
whether -simulate reproduces it, which is usually the fastest way to tell an
interface bug from an engine one.
These get closed without an answer, and it isn't personal:
- Requests for content, or help finding, sourcing or downloading anything.
- Questions about a specific torrent, tracker or site.
- Reports about what some third party is hosting — this project hosts nothing
and has no relationship with any tracker or index.
Security reports don't go in issues at all. See SECURITY.md
for the private route.
Pull requests are welcome, and CONTRIBUTING.md sets the
bar — the short version is that the reasoning behind a change matters as much as
the change. One behaviour per PR. This is solo-maintained, so reviews can be
slow; that is a queue, not disinterest. If you're planning something large, open
an issue first so you don't build for a week and find it's out of scope.
A magnet asks two questions, once
Click a link and a card appears at the top of the library: what it is, how big,
which files, and where it should go — with the option to remember that
answer and never be asked again.
Everything you'd reach for, without opening the app
Click the menu bar icon for combined speeds, every active transfer's progress,
and a pause button on each one. It's a real panel, not a menu — a list of
commands couldn't draw any of this.
Highlights
- The magnet flow — click a magnet link and a card at the top of the
library acknowledges it ("Resolving magnet…"), grows into the file summary
when metadata arrives, and hands off to live progress the moment you press
Download 8.3 GB. One continuous interaction instead of three dialogs,
and it happens in the window, where the library it's about already is.
- Smart Seed — four plain-language policies (Balanced, Helpful, Archive,
Temporary). Helpful mode keeps rare torrents alive even after their
goal is met. Every automated decision is explained in the Rules tab:
why did this happen?
- Smart Cleanup — set a storage budget; Current ranks completed downloads
by how safely they can go. Eligibility is a strict safety gate (complete +
seed goals met + not pinned + not active + healthy swarm); ranking then puts
old, large, inactive content first. Cleanup moves files to the Trash —
always reversible, never destructive by default.
- Swarm health in plain words — "Only a few complete sources are available.
Keeping this torrent seeded helps preserve it." Never shame, never nag.
- You choose where each download goes — the confirm card offers a folder
before anything starts, and remembers it if you say so. After that they go
straight there, and the switch to start asking again is in Settings beside
the folder itself.
- Private by construction — no accounts, no analytics, no tracking.
Torrent history stays local. The only request Current makes that isn't
the torrent protocol is an update check, and it asks before the first
one — see Updates.
Updates
Current can check whether a newer version exists and install it. It asks
once, on first launch, before making that request — and the switch is in
Settings if you change your mind.
The check asks current.alantom.dev for a version file. Nothing about you, your
library or your machine is sent, and there is no identifier of any kind. Every
update is signed with an EdDSA key and refused if the signature doesn't match,
so a tampered download can't install.
It matters more than the average updater: Current bundles a torrent engine and a
TLS library, and when those ship security fixes this is the only way one reaches
a copy already downloaded.
Uninstalling
Quit Current and drag it to the Trash. Your downloads are not touched —
they are wherever you saved them, and removing the app never removes what it
downloaded.
Three things stay behind. They hold your library, your settings, and the list
of peers Current has learned; delete them and a reinstall starts over as if it
had never been installed:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Current
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/org.current.torrent.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/org.current.torrent
If Current was handling your magnet links, macOS hands them back to whatever
had them before once it's gone — or you can set that yourself in System
Settings, under Default Applications.
Building
Requirements: macOS 26+, Apple Silicon, Xcode 26+, Homebrew.
Package.swift currently hardcodes Homebrew's Apple Silicon prefix
(/opt/homebrew), so an Intel Mac needs it edited before anything compiles.
brew install libtorrent-rasterbar
swift build # debug build
Scripts/make-app.sh # produces .build/Current.app
open .build/Current.app
Run without touching real networks:
.build/debug/Current -simulate # deterministic demo library
Tests:
swift test
Project layout
| Path | What lives there |
|---|
Sources/CurrentCore | Domain models, engine protocol, seeding policies, cleanup planner, file-tree logic — pure Swift, fully tested |
Sources/LTShim | Thin C API over libtorrent 2.x |
Sources/CurrentEngine | Swift actor wrapping the shim |
Sources/CurrentSim | Deterministic simulation engine behind the same protocol |
Sources/CurrentApp | SwiftUI/AppKit application |
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md | How it all fits together |
See CONTRIBUTING.md before opening pull requests.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
