Vanish 🫥

Vanish is a lightweight macOS menu bar utility designed to give you total control over hidden files. It combines a global toggle for Finder visibility with a "Drop Zone" that allows you to hide specific files and folders instantly.

Features

• Global Toggle: Instantly show or hide all system-hidden files in Finder with a single click.
• File-Specific Hiding: Use the chflags system to make specific files or folders invisible, even when Finder visibility is toggled off.
• Drop Zone: A floating, always-on-top window. Just drag and drop any file to "vanish" it.
• History & Search: A dedicated history window tracks everything you've hidden, allowing you to search and unhide items later.
• Menu Bar Native: Lives in your menu bar for quick, non-intrusive access.

How it Works

Vanish uses standard macOS system flags and defaults:

• Global Toggle: Modifies com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles and restarts Finder.
• Specific Hiding: Applies the hidden flag to files using chflags, which is the macOS native way to mark files as invisible to the UI.

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later.
• Full Disk Access: To hide/unhide files in protected system directories or external drives, Vanish requires Full Disk Access (Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access).

Installation

Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/vanish.git
   cd vanish

2. Build using Swift Package Manager:

   swift build -c release

3. Alternatively, use the included build script to create a universal binary:

   chmod +x build_universal.sh
   ./build_universal.sh

Development

Vanish is built using SwiftUI and AppKit.

• Sources/VanishApp.swift: Main entry point and MenuBarExtra configuration.
• Sources/HiddenFilesManager.swift: The core engine handling shell commands and persistence.
• Sources/DropPanelController.swift: Logic for the HUD-style floating drop window.
• Sources/HistoryWindow.swift: Management of the searchable hidden items list.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

If you like Vanish, consider starring the repo.

Support or buy me a coffee at ko-fi.com/mnzel1