Cross-desktop “smart folders” for Linux built on native filesystem features. Works across distributions, desktop environments, and even in terminal-only setups.
Folder Flow lets you define dynamic file collections using filters (age, size, type, etc.) and exposes them as regular files via symlinks — no special file manager required.
This project started as an experiment in making “smart folders” portable across Linux environments without requiring custom file managers or desktop integrations.
- Define filters using a simple GUI (file type, age, size, exclusions)
- Folder Flow scans the filesystem and creates symlinks in a target folder
- A background monitor watches for file changes and updates symlinks in near real time
- File previews (audio, video, images, text) are generated on demand and cached for fast reuse
- Distribution-, desktop-, and file-manager-agnostic
- Uses native Linux primitives (symlinks, filesystem searches)
- Background monitor keeps smart folders up to date automatically
- Preview system with configurable cache for responsive browsing
- Age
- Modified within the last X days
- Size
- Larger or smaller than X MB
- Type
- Documents
- Images
- Audio
- Video
- Scripts
- Optional exclusion of common system files and directories
- Previews are generated on demand the first time a file is viewed
- Generated previews are stored in a cache for reuse
- Cached previews are reused as long as the source file has not changed
- Default cache expiration is 30 minutes (user-configurable)
- Initial preview generation averages ~2 seconds; cached previews are near-instant
- Finalize
requirements.txt - Installer to register the background monitor as a service
- Expanded filter options
- Improved preview handling and format support