File search
Find files through the Spotlight index, on demand, with no file permission.
Search filenames across folders you choose, using the index macOS already maintains.
Settings → File Search holds the feature switch. It ships off, and while off there is no entry point and no Spotlight work at all.
Reach it with the Search Files command or its own global shortcut.
It asks for nothing
Tinycast requests no file permission for this. Hidden paths and application-bundle contents are excluded structurally — no setting can re-admit them — and that is exactly what keeps the feature permission-free.
If Spotlight has not indexed something, you get a thinner result list rather than a Full Disk Access prompt.
Actions
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open | ↵ |
| Show in Finder | ⌘↵ |
| Copy Path |
Copy Path leaves the palette open and confirms with a pill, so you can copy several paths in a row.
A row shows the file's native icon, its full name, and its parent folder with ~ abbreviated.
Search scopes
Settings → File Search → Search Scopes, defaulting to your home folder.
Home expands to its visible children plus Library/CloudStorage and your iCloud Drive root.
~/Library is never a scope Tinycast picks by itself — if you add a folder inside it by hand,
you get what you asked for.
An empty scope list searches nothing rather than quietly falling back to home.
Scopes are stored with ~ abbreviated, so a backup still points somewhere sensible on another Mac.
Ignore patterns
Settings → File Search → Ignore Patterns. Three shapes:
| Pattern | Matched against | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Plain word | Any path component | node_modules |
With * ? [ | Any path component | *.tmp |
Containing / | The whole path | **/[Cc]ache/** |
Matching is case-insensitive, and * spans /, so a **/…/** pattern behaves as written.
The setting stores only what you add. Six sensible rules are built in and cannot be switched off.
Limits
Query terms are joined with AND — annual report needs both words in the filename, in any order and
not necessarily adjacent.
At most 1,000 Spotlight candidates per query, and at most 200 rows after filtering. Typing waits 120 ms before searching.
States
| You see | It means |
|---|---|
| (nothing) | Empty query — no search is run |
| Searching files… | First query in flight |
| No files found | Query completed with nothing matching |
| File search is unavailable | Spotlight could not be queried |