File Search

Find any file on your machine by name, instantly, with a rich preview.

#What it does

File Search indexes your home folder in the background and lets you find any file by name — instantly, no matter how large your home folder is. It excludes caches, dependency folders (node_modules, .git, build output, …), and system/VM directories by default, so results are files you actually care about.

The detail pane on the right shows a real preview: images render as thumbnails, text and code files show their content, and (on macOS) other file types — PDFs, videos, archives — get a Quick Look-style preview too. The list itself shows small thumbnails for images so you can spot the file you want without opening the preview.

Everywhere else in the app, typing a search that doesn't match many apps or commands shows a "Search files for…" row — press Enter on it to jump straight into File Search with your query already filled in.

#How to use it

1. Open Asyar and type files — or select Search Files from search results.
2. Start typing a filename. Results narrow as you type; the more specific your query, the faster it narrows.
3. Use ↑ / ↓ to move through results. The preview pane on the right updates as you move.
4. To narrow by file type, click the dropdown in the search bar (or press ⌘P) and choose Documents, Images, Code, Audio & Video, Archives, or Folders.
5. Press Enter to open the selected file with its default app.
6. Double-click a row to open it directly.

#Shortcuts & actions

Action panel (⌘K) entries while the list is open:

• Reveal in Finder — shows the file in your system file manager.
• Copy Path / Copy Name — copies the absolute path or just the filename to your clipboard.
• Open in Terminal — opens the file's containing folder in your default terminal app.
• Toggle Pin — pins the file so it shows up first when you open File Search with no query yet, or unpins it.
• Move to Trash — moves the file to the system trash. This is destructive — Asyar asks for confirmation.
• Quick Look — a full preview without opening the file.
• Send to Asyar AI — opens AI Chat with the file's path (and, for text/code files under the size cap, its contents) pre-filled so you can ask a question about it.
• Search Everywhere — escalates your current query to your OS's native search (Spotlight on macOS, Everything on Windows if installed, plocate on Linux if installed). Useful for finding something outside your indexed folders, or by content rather than name. This runs once, on demand — never automatically as you type.
• Clear Search History — forgets which files you've selected before (used to rank frequently-opened files higher). Also available from the root search bar without opening the view.

#Tips

• Pin your most-used files. With no search query typed, the list shows your pinned files instead of being empty — a quick way to jump to a handful of files you open constantly.
• The fallback row saves a step. If you're already typing in the main search bar and it's not matching many apps or commands, look for "Search files for…" and press Enter instead of retyping into File Search.
• Search Everywhere is a deliberate extra step, not something that runs on every keystroke — it shells out to a real OS search tool, which is slower than Asyar's own index but reaches files outside your indexed roots.
• Large files are never fully loaded just to preview them. Text previews are capped, and images/other previews are generated as small cached thumbnails — so even a huge video file or a multi-gigabyte archive previews quickly instead of stalling the app.
• Configure what gets indexed in Settings → File Search — narrow to specific folders, add exclude patterns, or turn indexing off entirely. See Settings.
• Indexing your whole home folder uses more resources than the rest of Asyar. Keeping a live, searchable index of a large home folder means some ongoing background CPU/memory use beyond Asyar's usual light footprint — normally brief scans plus small background updates as files change. If you'd rather keep Asyar as lean as possible and don't need file search, turn it off (or narrow Search Roots to just the folders you actually search) in Settings → File Search.

#Related

• The Basics
• Settings
• Clipboard History