A drag-and-drop shelf for macOS.
Perch gives you a small place to set things down while you work. Start dragging a file, image, link, or bit of text and the shelf appears at the edge of your screen. Drop it there, switch to another app, and drag it back out when you're ready.
It also understands file promises from apps like Photos, Mail, and Messages, so it works with the things that don't become ordinary files until you actually drop them somewhere.
- Download
Perch.zipfrom the latest release. - Unzip it.
- Drag
Perch.appinto your Applications folder. - Open Perch from Applications.
Perch requires macOS 14 or newer. It has no Dock or menu-bar icon; once launched, it quietly waits at the screen edge. You can enable Launch at Login from Settings.
- Put something aside. Start dragging and Perch can open automatically at the nearest enabled edge. Drop onto the shelf to keep the item there.
- Pick it up later. Hover the edge to bring Perch back, then drag the item into Finder or another app. Dragging out can move the item off the shelf or leave a copy behind.
- Bring the shelf to you. Shake the pointer to summon Perch near the cursor. If you'd rather keep it somewhere specific, enable dragging, pull it away from the edge, and optionally lock it in place.
- Catch recent files. New files in Downloads or on the Desktop can appear as dimmed suggestions. Downloads that finish together collapse into a session you can expand, inspect, or add all at once.
- Right-click for the useful stuff. Quick Look, Delete, Return, History, Settings, and update checks are all close at hand.
General keeps the few choices that change what happens to your files: launch at login, and whether dragging an item out moves it or leaves a copy.
Advanced splits three ways. Look has the Glass or Minimal style, whether items sit in a list or stack like a deck, the shelf's size, and the small stuff — names, shadow, edge tab. Behavior covers when the shelf shows up, how you move a floating one, and recent-download suggestions. Docking chooses which edges it can use; snapping to an enabled edge is automatic, and at least one edge always stays enabled.
Perch remembers these choices between launches and can check for updates through Sparkle.
Items on the shelf are stored as ordinary files under ~/Library/Application Support/Perch/. There are no accounts or remote analytics. Perch only uses the network for automatic or manual update checks.
Smart Perch reads screenshots you drop so it can give them useful names. It also remembers where you tend to put things and can offer that folder next time.
It is built into Perch but remains hidden and completely off until you deliberately enable it—no Smart database, text recognition, or learning runs in the background. Everything it learns stays in a file on your Mac and never leaves it. Removing Smart Perch deletes that learned data without affecting shelf items.
MIT © Maximilian Reich