A modern, cross-platform, Far-inspired file manager built with C# and .NET.
CSharpFar brings the fast, keyboard-first two-panel workflow of classic file managers to a modern C# codebase, with a built-in viewer and editor, powerful file operations, remote file systems, native plugins, mouse interaction, and support for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
The demo runs against an isolated in-memory file system built from the repository-owned fixture.
Some workflows are simply faster with two panels, a keyboard, and immediate access to files, commands, viewers and editors.
CSharpFar keeps that style of interaction while rebuilding the application around modern .NET, explicit platform abstractions and a terminal UI engine designed for a real file manager rather than a demo application.
It is inspired by Far Manager, but it is not intended to be a line-by-line clone. The goal is to preserve the speed and predictability of the classic workflow while making the codebase easier to extend, test and evolve.
- Classic two-panel, keyboard-first file management.
- Built-in streaming text/hex viewer for large files.
- Built-in text editor with Unicode-aware interaction and syntax highlighting.
- Search, folder comparison and file-set comparison.
- Resumable, corruption-aware reliable copy mode for interrupted transfers.
- FTP / FTPS and SFTP file-system support.
- Native CSharpFar plugin architecture.
- Mouse support without sacrificing keyboard workflows.
- Dedicated Windows, Linux, and macOS hosts and platform implementations.
- Custom terminal UI engine with layered composition and fine-grained redraws.
- Built with C# and .NET 10.
See the feature overview for more detail.
CSharpFar is also a realistic large-project sandbox for Intent-Driven Development (IDD) and LLM-assisted software engineering.
Instead of testing development methodologies on toy examples, CSharpFar provides a continuously evolving application with real UI architecture, platform abstractions, plugins, file-system operations, performance constraints, tests and long-term design decisions.
The repository treats durable product intent as a first-class artifact. Current intent lives in .idd/intent/, while Git keeps implementation history and temporary execution details stay out of product specifications.
This makes the project useful in two different ways: as a practical cross-platform file manager and as an experiment in how substantial software can be developed with intent as the primary source of truth.
Install or update the standard Finder/Applications version with the same command:
curl -fsSL https://dimonsmart.github.io/CSharpFar/install-macos.sh | bashThe recommended installer uses the existing Homebrew Cask, adds the CSharpFar tap when needed, refreshes Homebrew metadata, and installs or upgrades only dimonsmart/csharpfar/csharpfar-app in /Applications. It does not install Homebrew and does not run a global brew upgrade. While the app is unsigned and not notarized, the installer also removes com.apple.quarantine only from CSharpFar.app.
Manual Homebrew installation remains available:
brew tap dimonsmart/csharpfar https://github.com/DimonSmart/CSharpFar.git
brew install --cask dimonsmart/csharpfar/csharpfar-appA direct manual Cask install does not apply the installer quarantine workaround, so macOS may require the normal Gatekeeper Open Anyway workflow on first launch.
For command-line-only installation, install the Formula instead:
brew install dimonsmart/csharpfar/csharpfar
csharpfarBoth packages are self-contained and automatically select Apple Silicon (arm64) or Intel (x64); a separately installed .NET runtime is not required.
When a newer GitHub release is available, About → Update now is offered only when the running process is the standard Homebrew-managed /Applications/CSharpFar.app. Manual, CLI, development, copied, or custom---appdir installations keep the Open release page action instead.
curl -fsSL https://dimonsmart.github.io/CSharpFar/install.sh | shThen run:
csharpfarSelf-contained Windows, Linux, macOS Apple Silicon, and macOS Intel builds are published on the GitHub Releases page. macOS releases include both portable CLI archives and CSharpFar.app archives.
For Homebrew details, packaged releases, manual APT setup and building from source, see Installation. On macOS, Finder launches automatically import the user's shell PATH once (configurable via shell.macOsPathMode); see the macOS PATH guide.
- Features — capabilities and major subsystems.
- Viewer and editor — viewer modes, navigation, search, encodings and editor overview.
- Installation — macOS/Homebrew, releases, Ubuntu/Debian setup and building from source.
- IDD intent index — current durable product specifications and decisions.
CSharpFar is under active development. The core two-panel workflow, file operations, viewer/editor, remote file systems, plugin model and cross-platform infrastructure are already substantial; the project continues to evolve in usability, performance and feature depth.
Practical contributions are welcome, especially:
- bug reports with clear reproduction steps;
- focused pull requests;
- portability and terminal-compatibility improvements;
- ideas that preserve the fast keyboard-first workflow.
This project uses Intent-Driven Development. Before changing durable product behavior, read AGENTS.md and update the owning intent specification when appropriate.
See the repository license file.