Twelve features in Captain’s Deck, the dual-pane file manager for Mac — built-in PTY terminal, SFTP/S3 remote storage, inline Git, archive browsing, vim navigation, JavaScript plugins, and Norton Commander themes. Every feature here exists for a reason — earned its place by being something you reach for daily. No bloat, no toy demos.
The orthodox file manager paradigm: side-by-side directories where every operation has a clear source and destination. Each pane holds unlimited tabs. Switch with Tab. Each pane has its own current path, history, and selection.
Navigate with hjkl, arrows, or page keys. Quick-jump by typing the first letters of a filename. Multi-select with Insert. Every action discoverable via F1.
Native Quick Look preview for the cursor file — images, PDFs, video, source code, all the formats Quick Look already handles, plus hex view for binary files in the dedicated Preview Panel. Arrow through files and the preview follows.
Press ⌘+F to search — Spotlight metadata returns instantly, then a deep grep takes over for content matches. Regex enabled by default. Filter by size, date, owner.
Real PTY at the bottom of the window. Bidirectional sync via OSC 7 — cd in zsh, the pane updates; navigate in the GUI, the prompt follows. Full ANSI color, mouse support, and your dotfiles.
Tools > Compare Files with FileMerge for a side-by-side syntax-highlighted diff. Tools > Folder Sync for two-way folder comparison and sync. Git-aware diff is built in for modified files in repos.
ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR.GZ, BZ2, XZ — press Enter, treat them like any directory. Add files by dragging. Extract by copying. No third-party app required. Encrypted archives prompt for password inline.
Write context-menu items, custom commands, or batch operations in JavaScript. The captain.* API surfaces fs, ui, http, shell, clipboard, storage, events, and more. Sample plugins ship in the docs.
SFTP, FTP, FTPS — passwords or keys, all credentials stored in the macOS Keychain. Sync browsing (⌘+⌥+Y) mirrors navigation between local and remote panes via relative path deltas, so a local checkout and its server deploy walk in lockstep no matter how their absolute paths differ. Same WinSCP feature you’re missing if you’re moving over.
Amazon S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2. Browse buckets like folders, drag to upload, edit and save back. Per-region credentials, never round-tripped through us.
Four built-in themes: Modern (follows the system), Paper (light, off-white, stays light), Norton Commander (blue + cyan, with optional CRT scanlines and phosphor glow), and Midnight Commander. Want your own? Drop a JSON file in ~/Library/Application Support/CaptainsDeck/Themes/ and click Reload — Captain’s Deck reads it on the spot. Per-pane fonts and sizes are configurable.
Swift & AppKit. Quick Look, Spotlight, and Keychain integration. Stage Manager friendly, Mission Control aware, full-screen elegant. Notarized for direct download; sandboxed for the Mac App Store version. Universal binary.
cd in zsh and the active pane updates; navigate the GUI and the prompt follows. Full ANSI color, mouse support, and your dotfiles. ForkLift launches Terminal.app externally; Captain’s Deck keeps the shell in-window. Terminal guide →
Full feature set. No restrictions. No card.