Marlin

A fast, no-nonsense file browser. Gets out of your way and just does files well.

Screenshots

Features

Core

• Grid view with thumbnails and list view
• Editable path bar with autocomplete
• Type-to-filter: just start typing to filter files instantly
• Marquee selection: click and drag to select multiple files
• Select all with Cmd/Ctrl+A
• Collapsible sidebar with file tree
• Pinnable favorites: Drag any folder to the sidebar to pin it for quick access—works with local folders, SMB shares, and Google Drive
• Per-directory view preferences
• Hidden files toggle
• Drag and drop to external apps
• Copy file paths—name or full path (looking at you, Finder!)
• Paste screenshots directly from clipboard as files
• Trash with undo support
• New Folder (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N): VSCode-style creation with instant rename—type foo/bar/baz to create nested directories in one go
• Rename into subdirs: Rename any file to subdir/filename.ext to create the folder and move it there
• Browse archives: Double-click ZIP, RAR, or TAR files to navigate into them like folders
• Calculate folder sizes
• Keyboard navigation
• Dark and light themes
• Accent color: Follows your system accent color by default, or choose a custom color in Preferences (Cmd/Ctrl+,)

Smart Thumbnails

Marlin generates thumbnails for a wide variety of file types—locally and on remote providers:

• Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF, TGA, ICO
• Design files: PDF, EPS, Adobe Illustrator
• Vector: SVG
• 3D models: STL with shaded rendering
• Video: MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, and more (frame preview)
• macOS apps: .app, .dmg, .pkg icons

Image dimensions shown under thumbnails. Image-heavy folders automatically switch to grid view.

Google Drive Integration

• Account Management: Connect multiple Google accounts from the sidebar
• Full Navigation: Browse My Drive, Shared Drives, and Shared with me
• URL Paste: Paste any Google Drive folder URL into the path bar to navigate directly
• Thumbnails: Full thumbnail support for all file types

SMB / Network Shares

• Browse Windows shares, NAS devices, and macOS file sharing
• Blazing fast: Handles folders with 100k+ files with ease
• Remote thumbnails: Generate thumbnails for files on network shares
• Automatic reconnection and credential management

Archive Browsing

• Navigate into archives: Double-click to browse ZIP, RAR, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, and TAR.ZST files like folders
• Nested archives: Browse archives within archives
• Works everywhere: Local files, SMB shares, and Google Drive
• Thumbnails inside archives: Full thumbnail support for images and other files
• Drag files out: Drag files from inside an archive to extract them
• Context menu extraction: Right-click for "Extract Here" or "Extract to folder/"

For Developers

• Git folder badges: Instantly spot Git repositories in any directory
• Git status bar: See branch name, dirty/clean state, ahead/behind counts
• Click to open remote: Jump to GitHub/GitLab/etc. directly from the status bar

Tech

• Frontend: React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Zustand
• Backend: Rust, Tauri 2.0, Tokio

Themes

Marlin supports custom themes in JSON and iTerm2 .itermcolors formats. Theme files placed in the config themes folder load automatically on startup, and you can also import them from Preferences.

Config themes folder:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.marlin.filebrowser/themes/
• Linux: ~/.config/com.marlin.filebrowser/themes/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\com.marlin.filebrowser\themes\

JSON schema:

{
  "id": "my-theme",
  "name": "My Theme",
  "author": "Optional",
  "colorScheme": "dark",
  "colors": {
    "appDark": "#1e1e1e",
    "appDarker": "#121212",
    "appGray": "#262626",
    "appLight": "#2e2e2e",
    "text": "#e6e6e7",
    "muted": "#a1a1aa",
    "border": "#3a3a3a",
    "accent": "#3584e4",
    "green": "#23a55a",
    "red": "#e01b24",
    "yellow": "#f6c84c"
  }
}

Install

Download from Releases:

• macOS: .dmg
• Windows: .msi (coming soon)
• Linux: .AppImage or .deb

Or use the install script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StirlingMarketingGroup/marlin/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Development

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Rust 1.77+
• Linux only: GTK/WebKit toolchain

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev || sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

Setup

git clone https://github.com/StirlingMarketingGroup/marlin.git
cd marlin
npm install
npm run tauri dev

Build

npm run tauri build

SMB Support (Optional)

SMB/network share support requires libsmbclient and is built as a separate sidecar binary to ensure the main app always starts even if samba isn't installed.

Install samba:

# macOS
brew install samba

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install libsmbclient-dev smbclient

Build the SMB sidecar (development):

npm run build:smb-sidecar

Build the SMB sidecar (release):

npm run build:smb-sidecar-release

After building the sidecar, run npm run tauri dev or npm run tauri build as usual. The main app will automatically use the sidecar for SMB operations if available.

Project Structure

marlin/
├── src/                # React frontend
│   ├── components/
│   ├── hooks/
│   ├── store/
│   └── types/
├── src-tauri/          # Rust backend
│   └── src/
└── public/

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/thing
3. Make changes and commit
4. Push and open a PR

Please run npm run build and cargo build before submitting to catch errors.

License

MIT