MacNook is a macOS Quick Look extension that shows you what's inside a folder — instantly — without opening a Finder window.
Press Space on any folder and see its contents: file names, sizes, types, and modification dates in a clean, scrollable list.
macOS's built-in Quick Look on a folder only shows you a generic icon and an item count. To actually see what's inside, you have to open Finder, navigate in, look around, and close it again.
MacNook replaces that with a real preview — the same spacebar shortcut, but now you see the actual contents immediately.
- Instant folder preview — press Space on any folder in Finder
- File details at a glance — name, file type icon, size, and last modified date for every item
- Folders listed first, then files, both sorted alphabetically
- Scrollable list — works on folders with hundreds of files
- Empty folder state — clearly tells you when a folder is empty
- Permission error state — shows a message instead of crashing if a folder can't be read
- Dark mode support — adapts to your system appearance automatically
- macOS 13 Ventura or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
MacNook ships as a standard macOS app bundle. The Quick Look extension is embedded inside it.
- Download
MacNook.appand move it to your/Applicationsfolder - Launch MacNook once — this registers the extension with macOS
- Follow the on-screen steps to enable the extension in System Settings
- Press Space on any folder in Finder
Note: macOS requires you to manually enable Quick Look extensions in
System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Quick Look.
This is an Apple security requirement — it cannot be automated.
Once enabled, MacNook works transparently alongside Finder:
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Select a folder → press Space | Opens MacNook preview |
| Select a folder → press ⌘Y | Same as Space |
| Scroll inside the preview | Browse long folder contents |
| Press Space again or Esc | Closes the preview |
No configuration needed. MacNook activates automatically for any folder you preview.
The preview still shows the default folder icon after enabling
macOS caches Quick Look previews aggressively. Run this in Terminal to force a refresh:
qlmanage -r
qlmanage -r cacheThen try previewing the folder again.
The extension doesn't appear in System Settings
Make sure you've launched MacNook.app at least once after installing it. macOS only registers the extension after the container app has run.
A folder shows "Can't read this folder"
The folder has restricted permissions. MacNook will never crash — it shows an error state instead.
MacNook only reads the folder you are currently previewing. It has no network access, writes nothing to disk, and cannot access any other files on your system. It runs fully sandboxed.
- Swift — no third-party dependencies
- QuickLookUI —
QLPreviewingControllerfor native extension integration - AppKit —
NSTableViewfor the interactive file list - UniformTypeIdentifiers — for accurate file type icons
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Created by ARX Studios