EchoFiles

A faster way through your files.

A native Linux file manager built for fast folders, quick search and hands-on file work.

Download the latest package · Browse the code · See performance details

Get EchoFiles

Download the package

Open GitHub Releases, download the .pkg.tar.zst package and SHA256SUMS, then install it on Arch Linux or Omarchy:

cd ~/Downloads
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
sudo pacman -U ./echofiles-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Open EchoFiles from your applications menu, or run echofiles. The package also installs the optional ef command line tool. Remove it with sudo pacman -Rns echofiles.

The package is for Arch Linux and compatible distributions. It installs the app for everyone on the machine. It does not need AUR access. Vulkan drivers are supplied by your graphics driver package; install the driver for your GPU.

Or build it from a clone

This option builds and installs EchoFiles for your user, without sudo:

git clone https://github.com/adityavardhansharma/EchoFiles_Linux.git
cd EchoFiles_Linux

On Omarchy, install the build tools and desktop libraries, then run the installer:

omarchy pkg add rust pkgconf fontconfig libxkbcommon wayland libx11 libxcursor libxi libxrandr vulkan-icd-loader
bash scripts/install.sh

Rust 1.90 or newer is required. If your Rust is managed by rustup, update it with rustup update stable. On plain Arch, install the same dependencies with sudo pacman -S rust pkgconf fontconfig libxkbcommon wayland libx11 libxcursor libxi libxrandr vulkan-icd-loader, then run the installer. Optional drive mounting uses udisks2 and polkit. Network places use gvfs (plus gvfs-smb for Windows shares), and finding servers nearby uses avahi.

The installer adds the EchoFiles app launcher and installs echofiles and ef in ~/.local/bin. To update later, run git pull in the cloned repository and run bash scripts/install.sh again.

See EchoFiles in action

Focused folder view Navigate, sort and switch views from one toolbar.	Dual pane Keep source and destination folders together while moving files.
Grid view and previews See images and files at a glance.	Command palette Find actions from the keyboard with Ctrl+K.

Search and index settings

Made for everyday file work

• Open large folders quickly. Names, sort order and file details are loaded with a parallel, native Rust pipeline.
• Search by name across indexed folders. The index maps from disk, supports Unicode and can skip development caches to keep results useful.
• Use the layout that fits the task. List, grid, column view (each folder opens in a new column, like the macOS browser), tabs and dual pane are available from the main window. Each folder remembers its layout, sort order and icon size, and folders can get their own colour and icon.
• Filter as you type. Ctrl+F narrows the open folder; turn on Subfolders (Ctrl+Shift+F) to reach every folder below it. Resting the pointer on a folder peeks at what's inside.
• Drive it from the keyboard. F1 lists every shortcut, the footer shows the keys that matter right now and what's on the clipboard, and the optional 10xer mode (Ctrl+Shift+Y) adds Yazi-style keys: j/k, h/l, gg/G, Space to mark, y/x/p.
• Preview before opening. Image and text previews, file properties and folder sizes are close at hand.
• Move with confidence. Copy, move, rename, trash, undo and redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z) are built into the file manager.
• Connect to Windows volumes. Inspect mounted drives, assign letters and choose when a drive can be written to.
• Open network places. Connect to Windows shares (SMB), SSH servers (SFTP) and FTP/FTPS servers from the sidebar's Network section or Ctrl+Shift+S, then browse, copy and rename there like any folder. Addresses such as smb://nas/Media or \\nas\Media also work in the path bar and from other apps.
• Use your Android phone over Wi-Fi. Pair it with the free KDE Connect app (Google Play or F-Droid) — nothing else to install on the laptop. Browse its files and photos, import new photos, send files both ways, share the clipboard, ring it, and see its battery, notifications and texts. See Connect your phone.
• Use ef from the terminal. Search an index, narrow results by extension or scope, and pipe paths into other commands.

Speed, measured against Nautilus

On a Ryzen 9 4900HS laptop with a warm btrfs cache, the benchmark opened the same folders in EchoFiles and Nautilus 50.2.2. “Content stable” means the listing finished and three consecutive screenshots matched.

Folder	EchoFiles content ready	Nautilus content ready	EchoFiles RSS	Nautilus RSS	EchoFiles CPU	Nautilus CPU
Small Projects folder	564 ms	1.63 s	141 MB	287 MB	110 ms	570 ms
10,000 files	575 ms	1.48 s	159 MB	315 MB	140 ms	2.13 s
100,000 files	638 ms	10.79 s	221 MB	416 MB	430 ms	15.48 s

That makes EchoFiles about 17× faster to display the 100,000-file folder, with 47% less RSS and 36× less CPU time in that run. The content timing includes the desktop window animation; the table compares the same machine and setup. These are warm-cache results, not cold-start-after-reboot results.

Read all the benchmark details, including search against fd and find.

The optional ef command

The release package and source installer both include ef. It searches filenames and directories, not file contents. Search can use EchoFiles' index for indexed locations, or walk a folder live with --in.

# Find names containing “report” in the configured search index
ef find report --limit 20

# Count indexed PDF filenames
ef find '*' --ext pdf --count

# Search a folder directly, including one outside the index
ef find invoice --in ~/Downloads

# Check indexed roots and index status
ef status

If ef says commands are disabled, open EchoFiles → Settings → AI agents and turn on the CLI option. The same switch controls agent access; the command itself runs locally as your user. Use ef --help for all options.

Build a package release

Maintainers can publish versioned Arch packages from GitHub → Actions → Build and release EchoFiles → Run workflow. Set the matching version in Cargo.toml, commit it, then enter that version in the workflow. It builds an Arch package from the selected source, attaches checksums, and creates a draft release for review. After publishing, the package is available from the Releases page linked above.

License

EchoFiles Is MIT