rcsync

A lightweight, keyboard-driven desktop app for syncing local project folders with cloud storage via rclone.

Built with Tauri v2 + Svelte 5. Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux).

What it does

• Push local projects to Google Drive, OneDrive, or any rclone remote
• Check which files differ between local and remote
• Pull or Bi-Sync when needed (with safety confirmations)
• Auto-discover local projects by scanning directories
• File watching — detects local changes and marks projects as "modified"
• Multi-remote support — switch between cloud drives with pill tabs
• Keyboard-driven — vim-style navigation, single-key actions
• Pin projects to the top of the dashboard (persists across sessions)
• Portable config — syncs between devices via Syncthing or similar

Design philosophy

Local is always authoritative. Push is the default. Pull and Bi-Sync require explicit confirmation with Cancel focused by default. Delete only removes the local copy — the remote is never touched.

Prerequisites

1. Install rclone

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install rclone

# Windows (Scoop)
scoop install rclone

# Or download from https://rclone.org/downloads/

2. Configure your remote(s)

rcsync doesn't handle authentication — rclone does. Set up your remotes first:

# Interactive setup — follow the prompts
rclone config

# Example: set up Google Drive
# Choose "Google Drive", follow OAuth flow, name it "gdrive"

# Example: set up OneDrive
# Choose "Microsoft OneDrive", follow OAuth flow, name it "onedrive"

After setup, verify your remotes work:

# List configured remotes
rclone listremotes

# Test access
rclone lsd gdrive:
rclone lsd onedrive:

3. Organize your projects

rcsync expects projects to be folders under a base path on the remote. For example:

gdrive:proj/
  ├── my-webapp/
  ├── data-pipeline/
  └── ml-experiment/

Push a project for the first time:

rclone sync ~/projects/my-webapp gdrive:proj/my-webapp

After that, rcsync handles all subsequent syncs through the UI.

Install

From source

git clone https://github.com/smkwray/rcsync.git
cd rcsync
npm install
npx tauri build

The built app is at src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Development

npx tauri dev

Configuration

rcsync uses two config files:

defaults.json (public, ships with the app)

Contains exclude patterns and default scan directories. Safe to check into version control and share across devices.

{
  "excludes": [
    "node_modules/**", ".git/**", ".venv/**",
    "__pycache__/**", "src-tauri/target/**",
    ".DS_Store", "._*"
  ],
  "scan_dirs": ["~/projects"],
  "default_pull_dir": "~/projects"
}

rcsync-config.json (private, gitignored)

User-specific settings — remotes, projects, paths. Stored next to the app binary (portable) so it can sync between devices via Syncthing.

{
  "rclone_path": "rclone",
  "remote": "gdrive",
  "remotes": [
    { "name": "gdrive", "base_path": "proj" },
    { "name": "onedrive", "base_path": "Projects" }
  ],
  "extra_excludes": ["dist/**", "*.log"],
  "scan_dirs": ["~/projects", "~/code"],
  "projects": [],
  "auto_check_on_launch": false
}

Default excludes are always applied. extra_excludes adds your own patterns on top — both are shown in Settings, but defaults can't be removed from the UI.

Key settings

Adding a new remote

1. Configure it in rclone: rclone config
2. Add it to remotes in rcsync settings (or edit the config file)
3. Switch to it in Browse Remote using the pill tabs

Keyboard shortcuts

Toggle with the Keys checkbox or Cmd+K.

How it works

• Push = rclone sync local remote — one-way upload, local wins
• Pull = rclone sync remote local — one-way download, remote wins
• Bi-Sync = rclone bisync local remote — two-way merge
• Check = rclone check --combined — compare without changing anything
• Dry Run = rclone sync --dry-run — preview what Push would do

All operations respect the configured exclude patterns.

License

MIT