Downloads

Your downloads newest first: open, reveal, trash, tidy

palupdated 2026-09-29ProductivityComes with pal

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Comes with pal, so a new install already has it; the button finds it in pal again if you removed it. This page can't see what your pal has installed.

Downloads: The folder newest first: a download coming in, then Today, Yesterday, This week, Older with sizes and ages
The folder newest first: a download coming in, then Today, Yesterday, This week, Older with sizes and ages
Downloads: The detail pane: name, folder, size, kind, modified, and the page the file came from
The detail pane: name, folder, size, kind, modified, and the page the file came from
Downloads: What a download can do: open, reveal, copy, move, rename, trash
What a download can do: open, reveal, copy, move, rename, trash
Downloads: cmd+m moves it: a form with the target folder, created when it is missing
cmd+m moves it: a form with the target folder, created when it is missing
Downloads: Three rows marked with shift+down (Tab marks too): open, reveal, copy or trash them at once
Three rows marked with shift+down (Tab marks too): open, reveal, copy or trash them at once
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What it does

Your Downloads folder newest first, with thumbnails and downloads still in progress: open, reveal, move, rename or trash files, and clear out old ones in one go.

  • Downloads newest first, grouped by day, with size, age and a thumbnail for images and PDFs
  • Downloads in progress at the top with their speed
  • Open, reveal, copy the file or its path, or move it to the Trash (asks first)
  • Move a file to a folder or rename it; tab marks several at once
  • Clear everything older than 30 days in one row
  • Your newest download shows in the main list for ten minutes

Palettes 1

  • Downloadsdownloadslive

    The downloads folder (and the browsers' when different) newest first with size, kind or thumbnail and age, a download in progress first; the last rows clear what is old and open the folder.

    • ↵Open the file
    • ⌘↵Reveal in Finder
    • ⌘YQuick Look (macOS)
    • ⌘CCopy the file
    • ⌘⇧CCopy the path
    • ⌘MMove to a folder
    • ⌘⇧RRename to the name typed in the bar
    • ⌘DMove to Trash
    • ⇥Mark the row for a multi pick

Actions

  • OpenThe system opener; on marked rows, every one.↵
  • Reveal in FinderShow in file manager on Linux.⌘↵
  • Quick LookmacOS only.⌘Y
  • Copy fileThe file itself onto the clipboard: a paste in Finder copies it.⌘C
  • Copy path⌘⇧C
  • Move to folder…A form for the target folder; ~ is expanded, a missing folder is created.⌘M
  • RenameThe name typed in the bar; a form with the current name when blank.⌘⇧R
  • Move to TrashAsks first; marked rows together.⌘D
  • Move them to the TrashOn the Clear row: every file older than the setting, asks first.↵
  • Open the folderOn the Open Downloads row.↵

Settings

Extension, [extensions.downloads]

folder
~/Downloads path

The downloads folder; `~` is expanded.

browser_folders
On boolean
limit
200rows number

At most this many files, the newest.

thumbnails
On boolean
clear_days
30days number

The age the Clear row moves to the Trash.

Defaults shown. Change them in pal's settings window or in the config file.

The README

Everything Downloads does, key by key, from the extension's own README.md

Downloads

Your Downloads folder as a palette, newest first, with what a download is (its size, its kind or a thumbnail, its age) and what you do with one next: open it, reveal it, copy it, move it somewhere, rename it, trash it. A live palette: the rows are indexed, so a download's name finds it at the root, and the folder is read again on every show, so what just finished is there.

The rows

section what
Downloading a file still coming in, first: Chrome's .crdownload, Firefox's .part, Safari's .download bundle, curl's .partial; the name it will have, a blue downloading tag, its size and, once it has grown between two listings, the rate; Safari's bundle says its percentage and total from its own plist. Reveal and Copy path only
Today, Yesterday, This week, Older every other file by its modification day, newest first: the size and the age on the right, the kind (Document, Image, Disk, App, Archive, Code, Video, Audio, or the extension) as the subtitle
Folder Clear older than 30 days: how many files and how much they weigh, moved to the Trash on Enter after a confirm card; Open Downloads: the folder in Finder

An image or a PDF wears a 64 px thumbnail instead of its kind glyph, made once per file (sips on macOS, ImageMagick's magick or convert on Linux) into ~/Library/Caches/pal/downloads ($XDG_CACHE_HOME/pal/downloads), the newest 24 per listing so a big folder lists fast and the rest fill in on later shows; thumbnails = false turns them off. Dotfiles are skipped.

With browser_folders on, each browser's own download folder is listed too when it is not the main one: Chrome, Chrome Beta, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi and Arc from their Preferences (download.default_directory), Firefox from prefs.js (browser.download.dir when it is in charge); the subtitle then carries the folder.

The detail pane (cmd+i): name, folder, size, kind, modified, and on macOS the url the file came from and the page it was on, as Spotlight recorded them (kMDItemWhereFroms, what the browser stamps on a download).

The root's Now section (the empty panel) shows the newest download of the last ten minutes as Downloaded: <name> with the same actions.

Keyboard

keys action
enter Open the file (marked rows: every one)
cmd+enter Reveal in Finder / show in the file manager (marked rows together)
cmd+y Quick Look (macOS)
cmd+c Copy the file itself: a paste in Finder copies it (marked rows together)
cmd+shift+c Copy the path (marked rows: one per line)
cmd+m Move to a folder: a form with the target; ~ is expanded, a missing folder is created, a file of the same name there refuses
cmd+shift+r Rename: argument name typed in the bar; blank (or a pick without the field) opens the form with the current name; a name in use refuses
cmd+d Move to the Trash (asks first; marked rows together)
tab, shift+↓, cmd+click Mark rows for a multi pick
cmd+i The detail pane

Trash is Finder's own on macOS (the file lands in the Trash and can be put back) and gio trash on Linux. Moving across volumes copies then removes.

Setup

Nothing to install; thumbnails on Linux want ImageMagick. Settings, [extensions.downloads]:

key type default what
folder folder ~/Downloads The downloads folder.
browser_folders boolean true Also list the browsers' own download folders when they differ.
limit 10 to 2000 200 At most this many files, the newest.
thumbnails boolean true Previews for images and PDFs.
clear_days 1 to 365 30 The age the Clear row trashes.

What it does not do

  • Pause, resume or cancel a download: the browser owns it; the palette only watches the file grow.
  • Show a fraction for a Chrome or Firefox download: their partial files carry no total, so the row shows the size and the rate; Safari's bundle has both.
  • Watch the folder: the listing is what the folder held when the panel was shown; cmd+r lists again.

Platforms

macOS and Linux.