Nyxcommander

nyxCore-Systems

Pixel-art dual-pane file manager for macOS — built with Tauri 2 + Svelte 5

Nyx.Commander

Keyboard-first dual-pane file manager for macOS.

Nyx.Commander is a native file manager for macOS and Linux in the tradition of Total Commander and FAR Manager — two panels, instant keyboard navigation, F-key file operations — wrapped in a crisp dark UI with pixel-art icons. The whole thing runs on a Rust backend via Tauri 2, with a SvelteKit frontend. No Electron, no web server.

What makes it different from most modern takes on the dual-pane formula: a full plugin system that lets you drop new viewers, columns, and virtual filesystems into ~/.nyx/plugins/ and have them appear live, no restart required.

Features

Navigation

Two independent panels, each with their own tab stack and navigation history
Click the path bar to jump to any location, or use Cmd+G for fuzzy path input with autocomplete
Cmd+= mirrors the active panel's path to the other — handy for copy/move workflows
Quick filter: start typing in any panel to narrow the file list instantly

Archive browsing — walk into ZIP, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, DOCX, XLSX and more with Enter, navigate subdirectories inside them, and Backspace back out. No extraction dialog.

Viewers

Text viewer with monospace rendering for code and config files
Hex viewer with ASCII pane, offset display, and byte inspector
Side-by-side diff viewer for any two files

Tools

Process explorer — live CPU + memory table, sortable, kill any process (F3)
Quick View pane — sidebar preview of the file under the cursor (Cmd+Q)
Command bar — run shell commands with the panel's path as working directory (Ctrl+`)
Directory sync — compare two folders and copy differences in one click (d)
Multi-rename — batch rename with pattern substitution (Cmd+M)

Themes & color rules — four built-in themes (Neon, Classic, Matrix, Amber), a custom theme editor, and per-extension or glob-pattern file colorization, all in the menu.

Plugin System

Four plugin categories, loaded from ~/.nyx/plugins/ and hot-reloaded on change:

Category	How it works	Example
Viewer	Self-contained HTML file rendered in a sandboxed iframe	Image viewer, Markdown renderer
Column	Any executable speaking JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout	Git status, image dimensions
Action	Same protocol, triggered by a keybinding	Compress selection, upload to S3
Panel	Same protocol, mounts a virtual filesystem	S3 browser, FTP, ZIP browser

Install a plugin by dropping a .nyx-plugin file onto the Plugin Manager. Three plugins ship built-in:

Image Viewer — PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, SVG, BMP, ICO; pixel-perfect scaling for small assets
Markdown Viewer — renders .md / .mdx with headings, tables, and fenced code blocks
Git Status column — adds a Git column showing working-tree status per file (disabled by default, requires Python 3 + git)

→ User guide: Plugins · Plugin authoring guide

Screenshots

Plugin Manager	Theme Picker
Quick View — Image Preview	Go To Path
Hex Viewer	Process Explorer
Diff Viewer	Built-in Help (`F1`)

Documentation


Overview	What Nyx.Commander is and how it's structured
Navigation	Panels, tabs, path bar, history, quick filter
File Operations	Copy, move, rename, delete, multi-rename
Archives	Browsing and extracting archive files
Viewers	Text, hex, diff, and plugin viewers
Tools	Process explorer, quick view, command bar, dir sync
Customization	Themes, color rules, favorites, remotes
Keyboard Shortcuts	Full shortcut reference
Plugins — User Guide	Installing and managing plugins
Plugins — Authoring Guide	Writing your own plugins

Everything is also accessible from inside the app with F1.

Keyboard Reference

Key	Action
`Tab`	Switch active panel
`↑` `↓` `PgUp` `PgDn`	Move cursor
`Enter`	Enter dir / open file / browse archive
`Cmd+Enter`	Open with system app
`Backspace`	Go to parent
`Alt+←` / `Alt+→`	History back / forward
`Cmd+G`	Go to path
`Cmd+=`	Mirror current folder to other panel
`Space`	Toggle selection
`Cmd+A`	Select all
`Cmd+T` / `Cmd+W`	New / close tab
`Ctrl+1`–`9`	Switch to tab N
`Cmd+Q`	Toggle Quick View pane
Ctrl+`	Toggle command bar
`F1`	Help
`F2`	Rename
`F3`	Process explorer
`F4`	Open with system app
`F5`	Copy to other panel
`F6`	Move to other panel
`F7`	New directory
`F8`	Delete
`F9`	Cycle theme
`F10`	Quit
`d`	Directory sync (compare two panels)
`Shift+D`	Diff the two files under cursor (one per panel)
`Cmd+F`	Find files
`Cmd+H`	Hex viewer
`Cmd+M`	Multi-rename selected files
`Escape`	Open menu

Type any printable character in a panel to start a quick filter.

Building from Source

Requirements: macOS 12+ or Linux, Rust stable, Node.js 18+, pnpm

pnpm install        # install JS dependencies
pnpm tauri dev      # dev server with hot-reload
pnpm check          # TypeScript + Svelte type check
pnpm tauri build    # production .app bundle

Built-in plugins live in plugins/ and are copied to ~/.nyx/plugins/ on first launch. To work on a plugin, edit directly in ~/.nyx/plugins/<id>/ — the file watcher picks up changes within a second.

License

MIT

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