A headless, native macOS droplet that reduces file compression and extraction to a single OS-level gesture: drag, drop, done.
     
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Conventional archive utilities impose a fixed interaction cost regardless of task complexity: launch the application, wait for the window, navigate a file picker, select an operation. For the overwhelming majority of archive operations, this cost is disproportionate to the task itself.
CrunchCat removes the interaction entirely. The file-system side effect is the interface.
It revives the droplet pattern and reimplements it as a compiled, natively distributed Rust and Tauri application highly optimized for Apple Silicon architectures. Rather than exposing a UI to drop files into, CrunchCat registers itself with macOS Launch Services as a generic document handler and resides on the Desktop as an inert icon. The operating system delivers the file; the application decides, in the background and without supervision, what to do with it.
- Automatic Dual-Mode Dispatch: A single drop target infers intent from the dropped item itself: recognized archives are extracted, all other files or folders are compressed. No mode selection, no dialogs.
- Fully Headless Steady-State Operation: Beyond a one-time setup, CrunchCat presents no window, no dock-based interaction, and no progress UI.
- OS-Registered Drop Target: File delivery is handled by Finder and Launch Services, not JavaScript drag-and-drop listeners. CrunchCat does not need to be running, frontmost, or loaded into memory prior to a drop.
- Non-Blocking Native Concurrency: Every archive operation executes on a dedicated OS thread (
std::thread::spawn), isolated from Tauri's main event loop, ensuring zero IPC bottleneck regardless of payload size. - Ephemeral Setup Interface: A transparent, frameless, premium dark-mode interface exists exclusively to establish the Desktop droplet on the first run, and self-terminates immediately after.
CrunchCat's architecture inverts the conventional relationship between a Tauri application's native core and its web-based frontend. CrunchCat treats the Rust core as the application and the React/TypeScript frontend as a transient, dispensable setup surface.
flowchart TD
A[File or folder dropped onto Desktop droplet] --> B[macOS Launch Services resolves handler]
B --> C["Rust core receives tauri::RunEvent::Opened"]
C --> D["std::thread::spawn — background execution"]
D --> E{File type inspection}
E -->|Recognized archive| F[Extraction engine]
E -->|Standard file / folder| G[Compression engine → .zip]
F --> H[Output written to source directory]
G --> H
H --> I[Thread exits — process returns to dormant, headless state]
By injecting CFBundleDocumentTypes declarations into the bundle's Info.plist, macOS's Launch Services database reads this manifest and permits Finder to treat the compiled .app as a valid target for arbitrary file drops. The drop target is the Desktop .app alias itself.
A drop delivered by Finder is surfaced to the Rust runtime as a tauri::RunEvent::Opened event. On receipt, the core inspects the path and dispatches to either the compression engine or the extraction engine via a dedicated background thread, guaranteeing the application remains responsive to subsequent OS events.
Upon the first launch, the frontend issues a single invoke() call to trigger the alias's creation, then immediately requests its own OS-level destruction:
app.get_webview_window("main").unwrap().hide().unwrap();The easiest and recommended way to install CrunchCat is via Homebrew Cask.
brew install --cask iemirakman/tap/crunchcat# Clone the repository
git clone [https://github.com/iemirakman/CrunchCat.git](https://github.com/iemirakman/CrunchCat.git)
cd CrunchCat
# Install frontend dependencies
npm install
# Compile the optimized, production release bundle
npm run tauri build(On completion, the .dmg installer will be written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/)
- First-Run Setup: Launch
CrunchCat.app. A transparent setup window appears. Confirm the prompt to authorize the creation of the CrunchCat droplet alias on the Desktop. - Auto-Termination: On confirmation, the window is permanently destroyed.
- Steady-State Workflow: Drag any file, folder, or archive onto the CrunchCat Desktop icon. It silently determines the correct operation and executes it natively in the background.
Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page if you want to contribute to the core Rust logic or the deployment pipelines.
CrunchCat is distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for full terms.