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.
Bowerbird is a Mac app. Grab the download link on your Mac, or send it to yourself.
v0.1.0 · macOS 14+, Apple silicon & Intel
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.
Pick an example. Search understands everyday English phrases.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You don’t need to open the main window to find something.
Press ⌃⌘B wherever you are and a small search panel opens over your work. Pick a result and carry on.
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.
The small things that make it easy to live with.
How your storage splits by kind of file, a card for every shelf, and what was added lately.
Images, videos, music, documents, archives, apps, screenshots and installers, each kept up to date as files arrive.
Preview any file without opening another app, and step through the rest with the arrow keys.
Keep a search you run often, like “pdfs from last week”, one click away in the sidebar.
Play songs and clips in a small player at the bottom of the window. Media keys and Control Center work too.
Size, dates, where it came from and any text found in it, for whatever you have selected.
Big previews when you’re browsing, a dense list when you’re sorting.
Drag files from any view into Mail, Messages, Slack or any other app.
Everything you do often has a shortcut.
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.
Every feature and every update for a single payment, with no account to create.
Launch pricing for 1 Mac
This price is for the first 300 licenses. After that it goes up to $19.
$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
Bowerbird asks for your license key the first time you open it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes. Switch from Playful to Minimal in Settings for a monochrome look. Both styles follow your Mac’s light or dark appearance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
While notarization with Apple is in progress, macOS may ask you to confirm the first launch: right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm. After that it opens normally.
Any Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
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.
Email hello@getbowerbird.app or ask on X at @0xdak_. You’ll get an answer from the people who build Bowerbird.
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