Rada – A safe harbor for your files (terminal file manager in Rust)

A terminal file manager for Linux, macOS and Windows where every file operation shows a plan first and can be undone.

rada is written in Rust and driven by keyboard or mouse. Vim keys and the usual desktop shortcuts work together, the interface is in English and Italian, and it looks the same in any modern terminal.

Plan before action. Copy, move, rename, trash and delete show what will happen first: files, bytes, symlinks, permissions, name conflicts. Nothing runs until you confirm.

Journal and undo. Every finished operation is recorded and can be undone, even after a restart. A file you changed afterwards is left alone, not overwritten.

Recovery after a crash. The journal is written as it goes. If rada is killed mid-copy, the next start removes the half-written file, keeps both copies of a cut move, and tells you. Tested with SIGKILL, full disks and property tests that check copy → undo gives back the starting state.

Signed updates. rada update checks a minisign signature made with an offline key before it installs anything, and can roll back. Signed releases start with 0.6.0-rc.9.

Phones and USB sticks. On Linux, phones, cameras and unmounted sticks appear in the sidebar; you can mount, copy to and eject them, and the plan says what a phone cannot keep.

Fits the window. Three boxes, two, or the classic layout, chosen from the size of the window.

Linux, macOS, Windows. Linux is supported; macOS and Windows are a pre-release (Trash and Recycle Bin, Finder tags, Quick Look, drive ejection) and still have rough edges.

Every operation shows a plan first. Undo says what comes back or goes away, line by line.

rada is young and written by one person. Read what is guaranteed and what is not, keep backups of what matters, and report anything strange.

rada chooses the layout from the size of the window (layout = "auto", the default).

Prebuilt binaries (Linux x86_64 and aarch64, static; macOS Intel and Apple silicon; Windows x86_64) are on the releases page. Unpack the archive and put rada (rada.exe) on your PATH; commands for each system are in docs/install.md.

With Rust 1.90 or newer (rustup), from crates.io:

cargo install rada --locked --version 0.6.0-rc.17

Only pre-releases are published so far, and cargo does not pick a pre-release by itself, so the version has to be named. With 0.6.0 cargo install rada --locked will be enough. More in docs/install.md.

git clone https://github.com/formikadesk/rada-fm rada cd rada cargo install --path crates/rada

Arch Linux (AUR): coming soon. A Nerd Font is recommended for file-type icons (rada setup font installs one); without it rada uses Unicode markers.

Run rada, rada ~/Pictures, or rada photo.png. Press ? for every key; both key schemes work at once.

More screenshots

The light Carta theme. The same screen in Italian: the language follows the system, or language = "it" / "en".

Icons view. Columns view, as in the Finder.

The right-click menu shows each key. Open with… lists the programs that can open the file.

Tags, and everything that carries one. Cards say what was done, with Undo and Show.

Progress counted in bytes. Permanent deletion asks for a typed word.

The Tag submenu, dark. The same on Carta.

The basic profile (TERM=vt100): ASCII, 16 colours. A narrow terminal: the sidebar becomes icons.

Catppuccin theme. Tokyo Night theme.

Recent, from the system's own list. The same on Carta.

An error stays until you close it. The help lists vim and classic keys side by side.

Releases from 0.6.0-rc.9 on are signed with minisign by a key kept offline; earlier ones are not. The two public keys, the same ones built into rada update:

How to check a download by hand: docs/verify.md.

Features: everything rada does, in full

Using rada: first steps, command line, all keys, mouse, requests as JSON

The interface: tabs, bar, folder views, panes, menus, notifications

Configuration: every setting of config.toml

Themes and terminals: colours, icons, images, profiles

Archives, tags, phones, cameras and sticks

Updates, installing, desktop integration (what works on each system)

Linux, macOS and Windows: what works on each

Safety: what is guaranteed and what is not

Verifying downloads and how a release is made

Development, roadmap, CONTRIBUTING.md, CHANGELOG.md

License

MIT © Alessandro Formica. See LICENSE.

rada is free and open source, and I want to keep it that way. If it saves you time and you would like to help me keep working on it, you can support it on Ko-fi. Bug reports, reviews of the operations engine and a star are just as welcome.