Finder alternative for Mac: Your Mac, mapped.

No, it works alongside it. Peekaboo is a faster way to see, search and tidy your files, and “Show in Finder” is always one click away.

No. Search, text recognition and duplicate detection all run on your Mac. There’s no account and no cloud. The app goes online only to check for updates, to check your license, to send anonymous usage counts (which you can turn off in Settings › General) and to send a problem report when you press Send. The privacy page lists every request, what it carries and how to stop it.

It can’t delete your files outright. Everything Peekaboo removes goes to the Trash, and each cleanup is saved as a session in Activity, so Put Back returns the whole lot in one click (⌥⌘Z puts back the last one). Nothing moves until you’ve reviewed it, and automatic cleanup rules stay off until you turn them on.

Only things that can’t go to the Trash: simulators, Homebrew packages, local Time Machine snapshots and, on macOS 27 with Apple silicon, the Apple Intelligence models. That stays off until you turn on permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup. Each removal then asks you to confirm that it can’t be undone, and every one is written to a log next to Activity.

No. Files that live only in iCloud are skipped, so nothing downloads behind your back. The uninstaller never lists Apple’s own apps, anything in /System, security or device-management agents, or Peekaboo itself, and it never offers folders that hold passwords, keys or sign-in data as leftovers.

It uses the same index, so it’s just as fast. The difference is that you type the way you talk (“zips bigger than 1 GB older than 6 months”) and Peekaboo shows the filters it heard as chips you can fix. The parser is plain code on your Mac, not an AI service, so it’s instant and private, and occasionally it’ll misread you. That’s why the chips are editable. It also searches by meaning, so “receipt” finds the PDF that says “invoice”, using a word model built into macOS, and it tells you which words it added.

A page (⌥⇧⌘H) with your Mac’s processor, memory, disk, network, heat and battery, the apps keeping it busy or awake, and a 0–100 score with the reasons it isn’t 100 and a button to fix the biggest one. It keeps a week of readings on your Mac, one every five minutes while Peekaboo runs, and can show the processor, memory pressure and network speed in the menu bar. Nothing is sent anywhere.

A page (⌥⇧⌘A) where you ask in plain words, like “zip last month’s invoices” or “tidy my Desktop”. It drafts a plan listing every step and every file, and nothing changes until you press Run. Each step can be undone from Activity. It runs on Apple’s on-device model, so nothing leaves your Mac, and it needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence.

Yes, with Routines, and only once you set one up. A routine runs on a schedule, at launch or when a file arrives in a folder: organize Downloads by kind, move old screenshots to the Trash, tag new PDFs, or Clean Safe Items. Every run is recorded in Activity with Put Back.

Open Mac Health and look at Startup Items: every launch agent, daemon and background helper that starts on its own, with the app it belongs to and leftovers of apps you already deleted. Turn Off moves the item to the Trash, so you can put it back. Apple’s own items and security tools are never offered.

Yes. Cloud Drives finds Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and iCloud Drive from their folders on your Mac and lists them in the sidebar and in search, with Download Now and Remove Download. For pCloud, MEGA, Proton Drive, Nextcloud, Sync.com or a drive in another folder, choose Add Drive… and pick its folder. There’s nothing to sign in to, and nothing downloads unless you ask.

Yes. Settings › Advanced › Use with AI apps copies the setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP apps. They can search your files, see what’s using space and what Clean Up would free, and show files in Peekaboo. They can’t open, move or delete anything, and files holding keys or passwords are never listed. What the AI app does with the results is up to that app.

An interactive map of your disk. Every category and folder is sized by how much space it uses. Click to drill in, and send anything you don’t need to the Trash right from the map.

Download Peekaboo and use every feature for 14 days, no account and no card. When the trial ends, buy a license to keep going; your library and settings stay as they are.

No. You pay once and keep it. A license is $24.99 one-time (launch price $9.99 until Nov 30) for one Mac, yours for good, with updates included.

Yes. Ask within 7 days of buying, by replying to your license email, and you get the full amount back, no questions asked.

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel: one universal app, about 26 MB. Almost everything works on every supported Mac; the download page lists the few extras that need a newer macOS or Apple silicon.

Yes: brew install --cask vishvavariya/peekaboo/peekaboo. It’s the same signed app as the download, with the same free trial, and it keeps itself up to date.

macOS asks you to approve access to Desktop, Documents and Downloads. Peekaboo needs it to show and search the files inside them. Nothing leaves your Mac.

It isn’t a full Finder replacement: no dual panes, and it doesn’t connect to servers itself (shares you’ve already connected show under Drives). It doesn’t search files that live only in iCloud (on purpose, so nothing downloads). And it never deletes your files permanently: they go to the Trash. Items that can’t (simulators, Homebrew packages, local Time Machine snapshots) are removed only if you turn on permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup.

The first index of a typical home folder takes a minute or two. After that Peekaboo listens to file-system events, so there’s no background rescanning. Text recognition runs at low priority in the background.

Yes. Choose “Deactivate this Mac” in Settings, then activate on the new one with the same key.