ShelfD

A small macOS menu bar app for parking files. Start dragging files out of Finder and shake the cursor, and a little box pops up. Drop the files on it and the box becomes a floating shelf you can move anywhere. When you need the files, drag them back out of the shelf. An empty shelf closes itself.

Shelves only keep references to your files. Nothing gets copied or moved until you drag the files out somewhere.

Download

No coding tools needed. ShelfD runs on macOS 14 or later, on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

1. Download ShelfD-x.y.z.zip from the latest release.

2. Unzip it and drag ShelfD.app into your Applications folder.

3. Open it. ShelfD isn't signed with a paid Apple developer certificate, so the first time, macOS says it can't verify the app. To allow it:

   • Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
   • Scroll down to the message about ShelfD and click Open Anyway, then confirm.

   You only have to do this once.

ShelfD lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon. Open it again any time to get to Settings.

Usage

• Shake to open a shelf. While dragging files, shake the mouse quickly side to side and drop the files on the box that appears.
• Move it. Drag the shelf by its edge.
• See what's on it. Click the stack to expand it into a list, then drag single files out.
• Empty it. Drag the stack out to a folder, the Desktop, an app, and so on.
• Close it. Click the × in the corner.
• Menu bar icon. Use it to open an empty shelf, close every shelf, open Settings (⌘,) or quit.

Shelves are saved automatically and come back when ShelfD relaunches. If a file was moved in the meantime, the shelf still finds it.

Settings

ShelfD has no Dock icon or main window. To open Settings, choose Settings… from the menu bar icon, or open ShelfD again from Finder, Spotlight or Launchpad.

• Open at login
• Shake sensitivity. Gentle, Normal or Firm.
• Excluded apps. Shaking while dragging from these apps won't open a shelf.

For "Open at login" to keep working, move ShelfD.app to /Applications first.

Build

You need macOS 14 or later and Xcode (or the Swift toolchain).

./scripts/build-app.sh
open build/ShelfD.app

To install a build, or to update an installed copy after a rebuild:

./scripts/build-app.sh && pkill -x ShelfD; ditto build/ShelfD.app /Applications/ShelfD.app && open /Applications/ShelfD.app

Run the tests with swift test.

To make a release zip, bump CFBundleShortVersionString in Resources/Info.plist and run ./scripts/package-release.sh. The zip goes to build/.

Status

Early prototype. Checked so far: file-drag detection, the shake sensitivity presets (unit tests), and restoring saved shelves, including files moved since. The full shake, drop and drag-out flow still needs testing by hand.