Shelves
Everything on your Mac, sorted onto shelves.
Images, videos, music, documents, archives, apps, screenshots and installers each get their own shelf, with a count and the space they take up.
Every file, beautifully found.
Bowerbird puts everything on your Mac on shelves you can see, understands searches written the way you’d say them, and remembers where every download came from. All of it runs on your Mac.
- Native Mac app
- No account, nothing uploaded
- Pay once, no subscription
Bowerbird is a Mac app. Grab the download link on your Mac, or send it to yourself.
Demo A 35-second tour of Bowerbird, with sound.
v0.1.5 · macOS 14+, Apple silicon & Intel
Say what you’re looking for.
Describe a file the way you would to a friend. Bowerbird turns your words into filters you can see and change, so it’s always clear what it understood.
pdfs from last week over 5 mb
Understood asKind PDFAdded Last weekSize > 5 MB
3 files26 MB
- conference-slides.pdf
- insurance-policy-2026.pdf
- studio-quote-final.pdf
pdfs from gmail named invoice
Understood asKind PDFFrom GmailName invoice
3 files1 MB
- invoice-0934.pdfGmail
- invoice-0921.pdfGmail
- hosting-invoice-oct.pdfGmail
videos larger than 1gb on my desktop
Understood asKind VideosSize > 1 GBWhere Desktop
3 files8 GB
- drone-footage-raw.mov
- wedding-edit-final.mp4
- screen-recording-0412.mov
screenshots today
Understood asKind ScreenshotsAdded Today
3 files4 MB
- Screenshot 2026-11-12 at 16.05.png
- Screenshot 2026-11-12 at 11.48.png
- Screenshot 2026-11-12 at 09.14.png
Pick an example. Search understands everyday English phrases.
Finder keeps folders. Bowerbird keeps track.
Finder is good at moving things around. These are the everyday jobs it leaves to you.
| Job | Bowerbird | Finder |
|---|---|---|
| Seeing what you have | Eight shelves by kind of file, with previews and sizes | One folder at a time |
| Finding a file | Plain-English search that becomes editable filters | Search criteria you build by hand |
| Where a download came from | Grouped by source: Gmail, Slack, ChatGPT and more | In Get Info, one file at a time |
| Duplicates | Exact copies and look-alike photos, side by side | No built-in duplicate finder |
| Freeing up space | Clean Up cards for installers, old screenshots, big videos and more | Sort by size and judge each file yourself |
| Latest downloads | The newest ten in the menu bar, with their sources | The Downloads folder or Dock stack |
Compared with Finder on macOS 14 and later. Bowerbird shows the same files and works alongside Finder.
A closer look.
Five screens from Bowerbird, one for each thing it does best. Scroll on, or watch the demo to see them in motion.
Search
Search the way you’d say it.
Type “pdfs from last week over 5 mb” and it becomes three filters you can see and change: kind, date and size. No syntax to learn.
Text in images
Find a screenshot by the words inside it.
Bowerbird reads the text in screenshots, photos and PDFs right on your Mac, so the Wi-Fi password you once captured is one search away.
Came from
Every download remembers where it came from.
Gmail, Slack, Safari and more. Find the file by remembering who sent it, not what it was called.
Clean Up
Space back, on your terms.
Old installers, big downloads, old screenshots and duplicates are grouped with their sizes. Nothing goes to the Trash until you review it.
Example files and numbers.
Found by what you remember.
You might forget a file’s name, but you usually remember something else: a word inside it, who sent it, or what it looked like.
Text in images, searchable like any other text.
Bowerbird reads screenshots, photos and PDFs on your Mac with Apple’s text recognition. Search for a phrase you remember and the image that contains it comes up.
- Runs quietly in the background, entirely on your Mac
- Copy the recognised text out of an image or PDF
- Select words right in the preview with Live Text
It remembers who sent it.
Every download is matched to where it came from, like Gmail, Slack, ChatGPT, GitHub, Discord, WhatsApp or Google Drive, along with the browser that saved it.
- Filter by source, or search “images from slack”
- Recognises Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Brave, Edge and more
- Read from the note macOS already keeps. Nothing is looked up online
Spot the copies, and the near-copies.
Exact duplicates are matched by what’s inside them, not by name. Photos that only look alike, like five tries at the same shot, are grouped so you can keep the best one.
- Exact matches by content fingerprint (SHA-256)
- Look-alike photos found with Apple’s Vision, on your Mac
- Whatever you let go moves to the Trash, never deleted outright
10 GB you forgot you had.
Clean Up finds the usual suspects: big downloads that have sat there for months, installers for apps you already installed, old screenshots, oversized videos and apps you never open. You look, you choose, and only what you choose goes to the Trash.
Optional automatic rules for old installers and screenshots stay off until you turn them on, and they also only move files to the Trash.
Example numbers. Yours depend on your Mac.
Colourful, or calm.
Playful gives every kind of file its own colour. Minimal keeps things monochrome and quiet. Both come in light and dark, and you can switch in Settings at any time.
Always one step away.
You don’t need to open the main window to find something.
Search from any app
Press ⌃⌘B wherever you are and a small search panel opens over your work. Pick a result and carry on.
- The same plain-English search as the main window
- Drag a result straight into an email or chat
- Choose your own shortcut in Settings
Your latest downloads, in the menu bar
Click the Bowerbird icon in the menu bar to see the ten newest files in Downloads, each with a preview and where it came from.
- Click to open, ⌥-click to show it in Finder
- Drag a file out to attach it anywhere
- Hide the icon in Settings if you’d rather not have it
And the rest.
The small things that make it easy to live with.
Home dashboard ⌘0
How your storage splits by kind of file, a card for every shelf, and what was added lately.
Eight shelves ⌥⌘1–8
Images, videos, music, documents, archives, apps, screenshots and installers, each kept up to date as files arrive.
Quick Look Space
Preview any file without opening another app, and step through the rest with the arrow keys.
Saved searches
Keep a search you run often, like “pdfs from last week”, one click away in the sidebar.
Music and video player
Play songs and clips in a small player at the bottom of the window. Media keys and Control Center work too.
Inspector ⌥⌘I
Size, dates, where it came from and any text found in it, for whatever you have selected.
Grid or list ⌘1 ⌘2
Big previews when you’re browsing, a dense list when you’re sorting.
Drag and drop
Drag files from any view into Mail, Messages, Slack or any other app.
Keep your hands on the keyboard.
Everything you do often has a shortcut.
Find
- Quick Search from any app
- ⌃⌘B
- Quick Search in Bowerbird
- ⌘K
- Refresh the library
- ⇧⌘R
Go
- Home
- ⌘0
- Downloads
- ⌥⌘D
- A shelf
- ⌥⌘1–8
- Show the Inspector
- ⌥⌘I
Files
- Open
- ⌘O
- Show in Finder
- ⌘R
- Quick Look
- Space
- Move to Trash
- ⌘⌫
What’s on your Mac stays on your Mac.
Bowerbird is a native Mac app. Indexing, search, text recognition and duplicate matching all run on your Mac with Apple’s own frameworks. There’s no account, no cloud copy of your library, and no analytics in the app or on this website.
Nothing is deleted for good. Clean Up and Duplicates move files to the Trash, so you can put anything back until you empty it.
Made by a security company. Bowerbird comes from DakCyber in Türkiye. Finding the ways data leaks out is our day job, so we built an app that keeps your files where they are.
- Requires
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Runs on
- Apple silicon and Intel
- Built with
- SwiftUI, native to macOS
- Text recognition
- Apple Vision, on your Mac
- Duplicates
- SHA-256 and Vision feature prints, on your Mac
- Your files
- Never uploaded anywhere
- Network
- Only to activate and check your license
- License
- One-time purchase with free updates
One price. No subscription.
Every feature and every update for a single payment, with no account to create.
Launch pricing for 1 Mac
- $9Early bird, current price
- $19Launch
- $29Regular
This price is for the first 300 licenses. After that it goes up to $19.
BowerbirdOne-time purchase
$9
$29 Regular price $59
$39 Regular price $89
One key for one Mac
One key for up to 3 Macs
One key for up to 5 Macs
One-time payment · no subscription
- Every feature, today and in future versions
- Free updates
- No account and no subscription
- Activate once online, then keep working offline for up to 30 days at a time
- Moving to a new Mac? Deactivate the old one and activate the new one
Bowerbird asks for your license key the first time you open it.
Questions and answers.
Does it replace Finder?
No, and it doesn’t try to. Finder stays your place for moving and organising folders. Bowerbird sits next to it for seeing, finding and cleaning up. Any file can be revealed in Finder with one click.
Does it upload my files anywhere?
No. Indexing, search, text recognition and duplicate detection all happen on your Mac. Bowerbird goes online only to activate and check your license (your key and your Mac’s name go to Dodo Payments). See the privacy policy for details.
Can Clean Up delete something important?
It never deletes anything. Suggestions are just suggestions: you choose what goes, and chosen files are moved to the Trash, so you can put them back any time before you empty it. Automatic rules for old installers and screenshots are off unless you turn them on, and they only move files to the Trash too.
How does it know where a download came from?
When you download a file, macOS saves a small note with the address it came from. Bowerbird reads that note locally and matches it to a familiar name like Slack or GitHub. Nothing is looked up online.
Why does it ask for access to Desktop, Documents and Downloads?
macOS protects those folders, so every app has to ask before it can list what’s inside. Bowerbird needs that access to put your files on shelves. You can review it any time in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Files and Folders.
Is there a calmer look without all the colour?
Yes. Switch from Playful to Minimal in Settings for a monochrome look. Both styles follow your Mac’s light or dark appearance.
Is it a subscription?
No. You pay once for a license and keep it, with free updates. Licenses come in sizes for 1, 3 or 5 Macs, at $9, $29 and $39 right now; see pricing.
Will the price go up?
Yes, a step at a time while Bowerbird is new. A license for 1 Mac costs $9 for the first 300 licenses, $19 for the next 100, then $29. Licenses for 3 or 5 Macs cost $29 and $39 until the 1-Mac price reaches $29, then $59 and $89. Buying early simply costs less. The license and its free updates are the same at every price.
Can I use it on more than one Mac, or move it to a new one?
Pick a license for 3 or 5 Macs if you use several. To move a license, choose Deactivate in Settings ▸ License on the old Mac, then activate it on the new one. The license page has the details.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Activation needs a connection once. After that Bowerbird keeps working offline for up to 30 days at a time, and checks in again the next time you’re online.
Which Macs does it run on?
Any Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit the app and drag it from Applications to the Trash. Its local index lives in your user Library and can be removed from the app’s settings before you go.
I have another question.
Email [email protected] or ask on X at @0xdak_. You’ll get an answer from the people who build Bowerbird.
Give your files somewhere to be seen.
Download it, enter your license key, and everything on your Mac is on its shelf in about a minute.
Bowerbird is a Mac app. Grab the download link on your Mac, or send it to yourself.
Pay once · Free updates · No account