FinderOne

A lightweight macOS menu bar app that automatically merges Finder windows into a single tabbed window.

What It Does

Every time you open a new Finder window, FinderOne detects it and merges all Finder windows into one tabbed window — automatically.

No more cluttered desktops full of Finder windows.

Features

• Automatic merging of new Finder windows into tabs
• Manual "Merge Now" for on-demand merging
• Automatic updates and manual update checks
• Launch at Login support
• Minimal resource usage — sits quietly in your menu bar

Installation

Requires Xcode 15+ and macOS 14+.

git clone https://github.com/mohnya-org/FinderOne.git
cd FinderOne
make build
make run

Setup

1. Launch FinderOne — it appears in your menu bar
2. Click the menu bar icon and grant Accessibility permission when prompted
3. That's it — new Finder windows will be automatically merged into tabs

Permissions

Permission	Why
Accessibility	Required to monitor Finder windows
Automation	macOS will prompt on first merge (AppleScript → Finder)

Updates

FinderOne release builds can check for updates automatically. In the menu bar panel, use Automatically check for updates to enable or disable automatic checks, or choose Check for Updates… to check manually.

If your installed version predates automatic update support, install a current release manually first.

How It Works

1. Monitors Finder window count via the Accessibility API
2. When a new window is detected, waits ~0.5s for it to finish loading
3. Runs Finder's built-in Merge All Windows command via AppleScript
4. If fewer than 2 windows exist, does nothing

Building

This is an Xcode project (not a Swift Package).

make build        # Build
make debug-build  # Debug build
make clean-build  # Clean + build
make run          # Open the built app

Raw xcodebuild command

xcodebuild \
  -project Corral.xcodeproj \
  -scheme Corral \
  -configuration Debug \
  -derivedDataPath tmp/DerivedData \
  build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO

Release-style build

make build writes the app bundle to dist/FinderOne.app, matching the release workflow layout. Local builds do not perform Developer ID signing or notarization, and automatic updates are disabled unless configured.

For maintainer setup, signing, notarization, and release instructions, see Releasing FinderOne.

Project Structure

Corral/
├── CorralApp.swift                    # App entry point
├── AppDelegate.swift                  # App state & orchestration
├── MenuBarView.swift                  # Menu bar UI
├── MenuBarIconFactory.swift           # Menu bar icon
├── FinderWindowMonitor.swift          # Finder window monitoring
├── AppleScriptRunner.swift            # Finder merge via AppleScript
├── AccessibilityPermissionManager.swift
└── LoginItemManager.swift

Known Limitations

• Monitoring is polling-based, not event-driven
• Finder's Merge All Windows may be temporarily unavailable depending on Finder state
• Behavior may be affected by future macOS or Finder changes

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

License

MIT