Prism

Lightning-fast file search for macOS — a native alternative to Windows' "Everything" search tool

Prism is a high-performance desktop search utility for macOS that maintains a lightweight SQLite database to enable instant filename search across massive audio libraries (5M+ files) on external drives.

Features

• Instant Search: Sub-100ms search latency for millions of files using SQLite FTS5
• External Drive Support: Index and search files on external drives, even when offline
• Audio-Focused: Specialized indexing for audio file formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC, and more)
• Volume UUID Tracking: Handles drive renaming without re-indexing
• Responsive UI: Maintains 60fps performance while indexing large libraries
• Real-time Progress: Live feedback during volume scanning

Supported Audio Formats

Common: mp3, wav, flac, aac, m4a, ogg, wma, aiff, aif

Advanced: ape, opus, alac, dsd, dsf, mp2, mpc, wv, tta, ac3, dts

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 15.0+ (for building from source)

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/jotarios/prism.git
cd prism/prism
open prism.xcodeproj

Build and run using Xcode (Cmd+R) or command line:

xcodebuild -scheme prism -configuration Release

Usage

1. Launch Prism and connect your external drives
2. Scan a volume by clicking the scan button next to a volume in the sidebar
3. Search instantly as files are indexed — just start typing in the search bar
4. Open files by double-clicking results or use QuickLook (Spacebar)

Architecture

Core Components

• File Scanner: Breadth-first traversal with batched database writes
• SQLite Database: FTS5 full-text search with WAL mode for concurrency
• Search Engine: Optimized prefix matching for large datasets
• UI Layer: AppKit/SwiftUI hybrid with virtualized table views

Performance Characteristics

• Search latency: <100ms for 5M+ files
• Batch size: 500 files per transaction
• Progress updates: Every 50 files
• UI responsiveness: Non-blocking async operations

Development

Building

xcodebuild -scheme prism -configuration Debug

Testing

xcodebuild test -scheme prism

Project Structure

prism/
├── Database/          # SQLite database manager
├── Models/            # Data models (FileRecord, VolumeInfo)
├── Scanner/           # File system scanning logic
├── ViewModels/        # Search and state management
└── Views/             # SwiftUI/AppKit UI components

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes using Conventional Commits format:
   • feat: add new search filter
   • fix: resolve UI freezing during scan
   • docs: update installation instructions
   • refactor: optimize database queries
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Roadmap

• MVP: Basic UI, file scanner, database, instant search
• Phase 2: Performance improvement, FSEvents monitoring, auto-indexing on drive mount
• Phase 3: ID3 tag metadata extraction, drag-and-drop support
• Phase 4: Dark mode, QuickLook integration, advanced filters

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by Everything for Windows
• Uses GRDB.swift for SQLite access
• Built with Swift and SwiftUI

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Note: This project is in active development. The current version implements core search functionality with planned enhancements for file monitoring and metadata extraction.