Actions#

This page shows the specifics of each action. For basic action usage and options have a look at the Rules section.

confirm#

Examples

Confirm before deleting a duplicate

rules:
  - name: "Delete duplicates with confirmation"
    locations:
      - ~/Downloads
      - ~/Documents
    filters:
      - not empty
      - duplicate
      - name
    actions:
      - confirm: "Delete {name}?"
      - trash

copy#

Examples:

Copy all pdfs into ~/Desktop/somefolder/ and keep filenames

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - extension: pdf
    actions:
      - copy: "~/Desktop/somefolder/"

Use a placeholder to copy all .pdf files into a "PDF" folder and all .jpg files into a "JPG" folder. Existing files will be overwritten.

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - extension:
          - pdf
          - jpg
    actions:
      - copy:
          dest: "~/Desktop/{extension.upper()}/"
          on_conflict: overwrite

Copy into the folder Invoices. Keep the filename but do not overwrite existing files. To prevent overwriting files, an index is added to the filename, so somefile.jpg becomes somefile 2.jpg. The counter separator is ' ' by default, but can be changed using the counter_separator property.

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop/Invoices
    filters:
      - extension:
          - pdf
    actions:
      - copy:
          dest: "~/Documents/Invoices/"
          on_conflict: "rename_new"
          rename_template: "{name} {counter}{extension}"

delete#

Examples:

Delete old downloads.

rules:
  - locations: "~/Downloads"
    filters:
      - lastmodified:
          days: 365
      - extension:
          - png
          - jpg
    actions:
      - delete

Delete all empty subfolders

rules:
  - name: Delete all empty subfolders
    locations:
      - path: "~/Downloads"
        max_depth: null
    targets: dirs
    filters:
      - empty
    actions:
      - delete

echo#

Examples:

rules:
  - name: "Find files older than a year"
    locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - lastmodified:
          days: 365
    actions:
      - echo: "Found old file"

Prints "Hello World!" and filepath for each file on the desktop:

rules:
  - locations:
      - ~/Desktop
    actions:
      - echo: "Hello World! {path}"

This will print something like Found a ZIP: "backup" for each file on your desktop

rules:
  - locations:
      - ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - extension
      - name
    actions:
      - echo: 'Found a {extension.upper()}: "{name}"'

Show the {relative_path} and {path} of all files in '~/Downloads', '~/Desktop' and their subfolders:

rules:
  - locations:
      - path: ~/Desktop
        max_depth: null
      - path: ~/Downloads
        max_depth: null
    actions:
      - echo: "Path:     {path}"
      - echo: "Relative: {relative_path}"

macos_tags#

macos_tags: "Invoices (red)"

Examples:

rules:
  - name: "add a single tag"
    locations: "~/Documents/Invoices"
    filters:
      - name:
          startswith: "Invoice"
      - extension: pdf
    actions:
      - macos_tags: Invoice

Adding multiple tags ("Invoice" and "Important")

rules:
  - locations: "~/Documents/Invoices"
    filters:
      - name:
          startswith: "Invoice"
      - extension: pdf
    actions:
      - macos_tags:
          - Important
          - Invoice

Specify tag colors

rules:
  - locations: "~/Documents/Invoices"
    filters:
      - name:
          startswith: "Invoice"
      - extension: pdf
    actions:
      - macos_tags:
          - Important (green)
          - Invoice (purple)

Add a templated tag with color

rules:
  - locations: "~/Documents/Invoices"
    filters:
      - created
    actions:
      - macos_tags:
          - Year-{created.year} (red)

move#

Examples:

Move all pdfs and jpgs from the desktop into the folder "~/Desktop/media/". Filenames are not changed.

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - extension:
          - pdf
          - jpg
    actions:
      - move: "~/Desktop/media/"

Use a placeholder to move all .pdf files into a "PDF" folder and all .jpg files into a "JPG" folder. Existing files will be overwritten.

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - extension:
          - pdf
          - jpg
    actions:
      - move:
          dest: "~/Desktop/{extension.upper()}/"
          on_conflict: "overwrite"

Move pdfs into the folder Invoices. Keep the filename but do not overwrite existing files. To prevent overwriting files, an index is added to the filename, so somefile.jpg becomes somefile 2.jpg.

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop/Invoices
    filters:
      - extension:
          - pdf
    actions:
      - move:
          dest: "~/Documents/Invoices/"
          on_conflict: "rename_new"
          rename_template: "{name} {counter}{extension}"

python#

Examples:

A basic example that shows how to get the current file path and do some printing in a for loop. The | is yaml syntax for defining a string literal spanning multiple lines.

rules:
  - locations: "~/Desktop"
    actions:
      - python: |
          print('The path of the current file is %s' % path)
          for _ in range(5):
              print('Heyho, its me from the loop')

rules:
  - name: "You can access filter data"
    locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - regex: '^(?P<name>.*)\.(?P<extension>.*)$'
    actions:
      - python: |
          print('Name: %s' % regex["name"])
          print('Extension: %s' % regex["extension"])

Running in simulation and yaml aliases:

my_python_script: &script |
  print("Hello World!")
  print(path)

rules:
  - name: "Run in simulation and yaml alias"
    locations:
      - ~/Desktop/
    actions:
      - python:
          code: *script
          run_in_simulation: yes

You have access to all the python magic -- do a google search for each filename starting with an underscore:

rules:
  - locations: ~/Desktop
    filters:
      - name:
          startswith: "_"
    actions:
      - python: |
          import webbrowser
          webbrowser.open('https://www.google.com/search?q=%s' % name)

rename#

Examples:

rules:
  - name: "Convert all .PDF file extensions to lowercase (.pdf)"
    locations: "~/Desktop"
    filters:
      - name
      - extension: PDF
    actions:
      - rename: "{name}.pdf"

rules:
  - name: "Convert **all** file extensions to lowercase"
    locations: "~/Desktop"
    filters:
      - name
      - extension
    actions:
      - rename: "{name}.{extension.lower()}"

shell#

Examples:

rules:
  - name: "On macOS: Open all pdfs on your desktop"
    locations: "~/Desktop"
    filters:
      - extension: pdf
    actions:
      - shell: 'open "{path}"'

symlink#

trash#

Examples:

rules:
  - name: Move all JPGs and PNGs on the desktop which are older than one year into the trash
    locations: "~/Desktop"
    filters:
      - lastmodified:
          years: 1
          mode: older
      - extension:
          - png
          - jpg
    actions:
      - trash