Dual-pane file manager · macOS 26 Tahoe
PaneShift is a keyboard-first file manager for people who know Total Commander, with two panels, a function key bar and the power tools you rely on: Multi-Rename, folder sync, Find Files, the Lister, archives and servers. It is built for macOS with AppKit, so it is fast in folders with 100,000 files and works with Quick Look, tags, iCloud and Shortcuts.
For Total Commander users
Tab switches panels. F5 copies to the other panel, F6 moves, F7 makes a folder. Insert and Space mark files in red, + and - select by mask, * inverts. The shortcuts you learned on Windows map onto the Mac keyboard: where Windows uses Alt, press ⌥. Where macOS reserves a Ctrl shortcut, PaneShift uses the Finder's.
On a MacBook without function keys, ⌘3 to ⌘8 do the same as F3 to F8.
| Total Commander | PaneShift | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Tab | Tab | Switch panel |
| F5 F6 F7 F8 | same, or ⌘5–⌘8 | Copy, Move, New Folder, Delete |
| Shift+F6 | ⇧F6 | Rename in place |
| Ins Space | Insert Space | Mark file |
| Num + Num − Num * | + - * | Select group, unselect, invert |
| Alt+F7 | ⌥F7 | Find Files |
| Ctrl+M | ⌃M | Multi-Rename Tool |
| Ctrl+D | ⌘D | Folder hotlist |
| Ctrl+Q | ⌃Q | Quick View panel |
| Ctrl+B | ⌃B | Branch view |
| Alt+F5 Alt+F9 | ⌥F5 ⌥F9 | Pack, Unpack |
| Shift+F2 | ⇧F2 | Compare folders |
| Ctrl+U | ⌘U | Swap panels |
Power tools
Each one works the way you know it, with a live preview before anything changes on disk.
Total Commander's masks: [N], [E], ranges like [N2-5], the counter [C], dates [Y]-[M]-[D] and parent folders [P]. Search and replace with regular expressions, change case, and see every new name before you press Rename.
Compare two folders by name, size and date, or by content. Each difference gets an action you can change: copy left, copy right, delete or leave it. Run it both ways or in one direction, with orphans sent to the Trash.
Search by name mask, text inside files, size and age, in subfolders and hidden items. Use the Spotlight index for instant results, or find text in photos and scanned PDFs with on-device OCR. Feed to Panel puts the results in a panel so you can copy, pack or rename them.
F3 opens the Lister: text with encoding detection (including Windows-1250), a hex view for files of any size, images, and rendered Markdown. Keys 1 3 4 5 switch modes as in Total Commander. ⌃Q turns the other panel into a live Quick Look preview.
Open ZIP, 7z, TAR, gz, bz2, xz, zst, ISO, RAR and Apple Archive like folders. Pack to ZIP (with AES-256), 7z and TAR variants.
SFTP and SCP with keys and ~/.ssh/config, FTP and FTPS, WebDAV, S3-compatible storage and SMB shares. Passwords live in the Keychain. Paused downloads resume where they stopped.
Queue copies behind each other, pause and resume them, verify copies, and decide conflicts once for all files.
⌃B lists every file below the current folder in one flat list, ready to mark and copy.
Type under the panels: cd moves the panel, anything else runs in your shell in the current folder. ⌃Return inserts the file name.
Create and verify CRC32 (SFV), MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 and SHA-512 files. Split big files into parts and join them again.
Made for macOS
⌘Y previews any file. Quick View shows it live in the other panel as you move.
Copies on the same APFS volume are instant clones that take no extra space.
Columns for Finder tags and iCloud status. Download or remove a cloud file from the menu.
F8 moves to the Trash, so the Finder can put files back. ⇧F8 deletes for good.
Open folders in PaneShift from Shortcuts, scripts and other apps, and read the current folder.
AirDrop and Share from the menu. Every Services menu item works with the marked files.
On-device models fill in Find Files and Multi-Rename from a plain description and summarize text in the Lister.
See who signed an app, whether it is notarized and whether it is quarantined.
A treemap of what fills a folder or a disk. Click to dig in, double-click to show it in the panel.
Make it yours
Every command has an ID, like Total Commander's cm_ commands. Bind any of them to keys, put them on the button bar or find them in the command palette (⇧⌘P).
%P %T %N %F %S, quoted safely for the shell.
Editions
Both editions share the same panels and tools. The App Store's sandbox rules out a few features that need to run programs or reach every folder.
Signed with Developer ID, without the App Store sandbox.
Installed and updated by the App Store.
PaneShift is in development. Download links for both editions will appear here at release.
No. WCX, WFX, WLX and WDX plugins are Windows DLLs. PaneShift builds archives, servers and viewers in, and adds JavaScript scripts.
On PC keyboards, Insert marks files as you expect. On a Mac keyboard, use Space or ⇧↓.
The pop-up before each path lists disks with free space, Finder places and your hotlist. ⌘1 and ⌘2 open it for the left and right panel.
macOS uses Ctrl+arrows for Spaces and Mission Control. PaneShift uses ⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→.