Forel

The Hazel alternative for macOS. Open source and privacy-focused.

New · project from the Forel team — check out Ombrelle (opens in a new tab) →

This project is built and maintained on my personal time. A ⭐ on the repo is the simplest way to say thanks and helps Forel get discovered by others who might need it. For anyone who wants to go further, you can support the work with a buy me a coffee (opens in a new tab)

Open source, 100% on-device

Install with [Homebrew](https://brew.sh):

Why Forel

Forel is an open-source, community-driven take on folder automation for macOS.

Define rules once watch folders, match files, and move, rename, tag, or label them automatically then let Forel run quietly in your menu bar.

What Forel does

Forel watches your folders and organizes your files automatically based on rules you define — by filename, extension, kind, size, date, tags, color label, or file contents. On-device OCR lets you match text in images and scanned PDFs, too.

Set up a rule once. Forel handles the rest — even when the window is closed.

File matching and processing happen locally on your Mac. Forel does not upload your files to a processing service. Your configured destinations and scripts determine where files go, including network volumes.

Highlights

• Open source (GPLv3) — source code available, community-driven development.
• On-device processing — file matching and OCR run locally, without a cloud processing service or AI API keys.
• Rule-based — match by name, extension, kind, size, date, tags, color label, or file contents.
• Native menu-bar app — runs quietly in the background; toggle rules without opening the window.
• Community-driven — built in the open, contributions welcome.

Features

• Rule-based automation — Create flexible rules combining filename patterns, file types, sizes, dates, tags, and Finder color labels.
• Content matching & OCR — Match text inside documents, images, and scanned PDFs using local extraction and on-device OCR. See [Content matching](#content-matching) for supported formats and limits.
• Folder watching — Monitor any number of folders in real time with native macOS FSEvents.
• Dry Run & Run Now — Preview matching files and planned actions without changing files, then run rules manually on existing files when ready.
• History & Undo — Review action results and undo supported actions when it is safe to do so.