v1.0.6

Forel v1.0.6

Added

• Added an Open Application action that launches a chosen app, with an option to pass the matched file to it.
• Watcher notifications: a new toggle in Settings lets you enable or disable system notifications when automatic rules process files.

Changed

• Settings now opens in its own window, with a "Settings…" item under the Forel menu and the standard ⌘, shortcut, instead of being a pane inside the main window.
• Forel now requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, down from macOS 14 Sonoma.

Fixed

• Opening Forel's main window from the menu-bar quick panel now reliably switches the top menu bar to Forel's own menu (Forel, File, Edit, View…) instead of sometimes leaving the previous app's menu showing.
• Opening the Permissions tab in Settings no longer hitches while it checks whether Music/TV are running.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.6-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.6-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. Forel is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple.

v1.0.5

Forel v1.0.5

Added

• Rule editor now validates conditions and actions before saving — empty condition values, invalid regex, empty destination or rename pattern are reported on save instead of silently causing wrong behaviour.
• About Forel panel now shows the app icon, name and version.

Changed

• Removed the Light/Dark theme override from Settings; Forel now always follows the system appearance.
• When no rules exist, the action bar is hidden and a centered "New Rule" button is shown in the empty state.
• The "Clean file name" option in Rename actions now transliterates any script (Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK, German ß…) to a universal ASCII slug.

Fixed

• Move to Trash no longer blocks with a "file already at destination" error when an identically-named file is already in the Trash.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.5-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.5-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. Forel is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple.

v1.0.4

Forel v1.0.4

Changed

• Release downloads are now signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple so macOS can verify their publisher.

Fixed

• Fixed exact Name exclusions with file extensions being ignored when combined with other conditions.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.4-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.4-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. Forel is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple.

v1.0.3

Forel v1.0.3

Added

• Added an Uncompress action for ZIP archives, with conflict handling and action chaining on the extracted item.
• Added the ability to change the path of an existing watched folder while keeping its rules.

Fixed

• Fixed the menu bar panel staying open after clicking elsewhere.
• Fixed the automatic watcher potentially missing files when macOS reports dropped filesystem events by rescanning the affected folder while still skipping unchanged files.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.3-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.3-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v1.0.2

Forel v1.0.2

Added

• Added expandable rule cards that show each rule's conditions and actions directly in the rule list.
• Each rule now shows its run count from the last 30 days, hidden when there's nothing to show, and the menu bar quick panel has a "Last 30 Days" section with success and failed totals across all rules.

Changed

• Dry Run now shows each matched file's full path beneath its name.
• Refreshed the menu bar quick panel with a cleaner header, bordered footer buttons, and a background that now properly adapts to Light mode instead of always looking dark and hard to read.

Fixed

• Fixed expanded/collapsed rule cards resetting after restarting the app.
• Fixed incomplete browser downloads from Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and other common downloaders being treated as ready documents and moved before the download finished.
• Fixed a crash that could happen when dropping a large batch of files into a watched folder while the app window was also active (e.g. running Run Now, switching folders) — all database access from the app now goes through the same lock the watcher already used.
• Fixed the app icon appearing off-center and larger than other apps' icons in the Dock and Cmd-Tab switcher.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.2-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.2-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v1.0.1

Forel v1.0.1

Added

• Added an Import to Library action that can add files to the Music, Photos, or TV native macOS libraries. When a file is already present you can choose to skip it (leave the library untouched) or replace it (remove the existing entry before re-importing). File format compatibility is checked before each import, and importing into Photos requires granting access in System Settings.
• The Contents condition now uses on-device Vision OCR and the Apple Neural Engine to extract text from scanned PDFs and images — everything stays private and works offline, with no data sent to the cloud.
• Added image OCR support for WebP, GIF, BMP, JPEG 2000, and Photoshop files.
• Added content extraction support for Office template formats (.dotx, .xltx, .potx).
• Added a Permissions section to Settings showing the status of Photos and Music/TV automation access, with buttons to grant access or open the relevant System Settings pane.

Changed

• Activity and Dry Run text (file paths, messages, rule names) can now be selected and copied.
• Import to Library now only offers Skip and Replace as conflict options (Rename removed), with Skip as the default.
• The action kind and condition kind pickers now show SF Symbol icons and are grouped into labelled sections.
• Forel's app identifier moved to com.lab421.forel. Existing rules, history, and settings carry over automatically.

Fixed

• The watcher now also ignores Microsoft Office lock files (~$...) and macOS resource-fork files (._...), in addition to .DS_Store.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.1-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.1-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v1.0.0

Forel v1.0.0

🎉🍾 Forel is exiting beta. This release marks the transition to a stable. Faster, safer, and ready for everyday use.

Added

• Added an options button to the Rename action with a "Clean file name" toggle that strips accents and special characters, lowercases, and converts camelCase and spaces to hyphens.
• Added a directory filter and paginated loading to Activity so large histories open faster.
• Added an option to Move to Folder and Copy to Folder rules for handling a file that already exists at the destination: rename the new file (default), replace the existing file (sent to the Trash, not deleted), or skip the file to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Added a History retention setting to limit stored activity entries, with automatic background cleanup of entries older than the configured number of days.

Changed

• Dry Run, Run Now, and the automatic watcher now always agree on what a rule would do to a file, including which files are skipped, blocked, or already sorted — no more surprises between a preview and what actually happens.
• Undo now refuses to act if the file changed since the original action, or if an active rule would immediately reprocess the restored file, instead of silently restoring the wrong file or letting the watcher redo what was just undone.
• Copy to Folder is no longer undoable — a copy is an independent file once created, not something to roll back.
• The action options button in the rule editor is now hidden for actions that have no options instead of showing an empty popover.
• Database upgrades now run through an ordered migration list to keep future updates safer.

Fixed

• Fixed a rare crash in automatic history cleanup caused by unsynchronized database access from background threads.
• Fixed history retention cleanup incorrectly comparing dates across timezones — dates are now always stored and compared in UTC.
• Fixed the watcher re-evaluating every file once after migrating to the new path-state schema, instead of trusting a matching fingerprint.
• Fixed Run Script actions hanging forever when the script doesn't exit — they now time out after 60 seconds.
• Delete now permanently removes the file instead of moving it to the Trash (undo is no longer available for Delete).
• Fixed rename patterns containing / being able to move files outside the source directory — they now produce an error instead.
• Rename patterns are now validated against macOS filename rules (., .., trailing spaces/dots, max length) and show live warnings in the editor.
• Fixed Dry Run showing an empty action area instead of explaining when a matched rule has no actions.
• Fixed Activity becoming unresponsive when opening very large history logs.
• Fixed renamed or moved files being immediately reprocessed by the watcher and receiving repeated rename suffixes.
• Fixed Dry Run crashing when a very large folder produced too many preview matches.
• Fixed rules stopping after a successful Move to Folder action instead of continuing with later actions on the moved file.
• Fixed Dry Run showing rename actions as unavailable after a simulated move when the rename pattern only used the file name.
• Fixed unreadable rule editor selectors in Light mode.
• Fixed Dry Run hiding files that matched a rule with conditions but no actions.
• Fixed a bug where a destination conflict could rename a file mid-move into a numbered duplicate that Dry Run never showed.
• Fixed the automatic watcher repeatedly re-running a Copy to Folder rule on the same untouched file, flooding Activity with duplicate entries.
• Fixed the automatic watcher logging a spurious "doesn't exist" entry for a file it had just successfully moved, caused by a duplicate filesystem notification for the same change.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v1.0.0-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v1.0.0-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v0.1.0-beta.5

Forel v0.1.0-beta.5

Added

• Added a Run Shortcut rule action that lists macOS Shortcuts and lets each action choose matched-file or no-input mode.
• Added a Settings toggle to show or hide Forel's Dock icon while the app keeps running.
• Added drag-and-drop reordering for watched folders in the sidebar.

Fixed

• Fix hidden title window
• Adding an already-watched folder now shows a clear explanation instead of a database error.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.5-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.5-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v0.1.0-beta.4

Forel v0.1.0-beta.4

Added

• Added metadata conditions for matching files by download website and download app, backed by macOS where-from metadata.

Changed

• The rule editor now warns that all-level subfolder scans can slow execution in folders with many files.

Fixed

• Dry Run and Run Now no longer scan nested folders when only current-folder rules are enabled.
• The main window now has a larger minimum size so rule controls stay visible when resized.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.4-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.4-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)

v0.1.0-beta.3

Forel v0.1.0-beta.3

Added

• Dry Run now shows detailed per-file rule previews, including matched
  conditions, planned actions, source/target paths, and statuses such as
  "would run", "would skip", and "blocked by conflict".
• Dry Run now detects destination conflicts for move, copy, rename, trash,
  and delete previews without modifying files.
• Action history now records skipped and failed actions, including the reason
  or error message when available.
• Run Now shows a loading state while it's working and a confirmation
  message with the result once it's done.

Changed

• New installs now start at login by default, and start with watching
  paused until you've set up your folders and rules.
• The old Preview action is now presented as Dry Run in the UI.
• The Dry Run window is larger to make rule details easier to inspect.
• The menu bar panel has more top padding so its header is not cramped under
  the popover arrow.
• The History view now groups activity by batch and file, shows full
  original path -> result path flow, and displays explicit status badges.
• Size conditions now default to MB instead of bytes.
• Crisper, better-sized menu bar icon.

Fixed

• Fixed the "Update available" banner text getting cut off in the menu bar
  panel.
• Dry Run now follows simulated rename paths when evaluating following rules,
  matching the real execution order more closely.
• Condition rows in the rule editor now align consistently to the left.

Two builds available. Download the one that matches your Mac:

• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.3-darwin-arm64.dmg Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
• Forel-v0.1.0-beta.3-darwin-x86_64.dmg for Intel

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Download the correct .dmg for your Mac.
2. Open it and drag Forel into Applications.
3. First launch: the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so right-click Forel.app -> Open and confirm. (Or run xattr -cr /Applications/Forel.app.)