Prvw is a powerful and lightweight macOS Quick Look extension that lets you preview the contents of folders and archive files without extracting or opening them. Simply select an archive, press Space, and explore its structure instantly.

Warning: Prvw is 100% vibe coded and bzip support is experimental.

• Instant Previews: View archive contents immediately using Quick Look.
• Finder-like Interface: Navigate file hierarchies with a familiar list view.
• Wide Format Support: Handles all common archive formats including Zip, Tar, Gzip and Rar.
• Memory Efficient: Streams data to preview large archives without loading them entirely into memory.
• Detailed Info: Displays file names, sizes, and modification dates.
• Dark Mode Ready: Fully supports macOS appearance modes.

Prvw currently supports the following archive types:

• ZIP (.zip)
• TAR (.tar)
• GZip (.gz)
• Tar + GZip (.tgz, .tar.gz)
• RAR (.rar) - Supports both v4 and v5
• Tar + BZip (.bz2, .tar.bz2)

1. Download the DMG file from Github Releases

2. Open the DMG File and Drag and Drop the Prvw App to Applications Folder

   macOS Gatekeeper Warning

   Prvw is signed but not notarized by Apple. When you first launch the app, macOS Gatekeeper may display a security warning. This is normal and expected.

   How to Run the App

   When you first try to launch Prvw, Gatekeeper will display a security warning with options to "Close" or "Move to Bin".

   To run the app

   1. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security
   2. Scroll down to find the Prvw security warning
   3. Click the "Open Anyway" button next to the warning
   4. Launch Prvw again, and you won't see the warning

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/akshatfs/prvw.git

2. Open Prvw.xcodeproj in Xcode.

3. Build and run the Prvw scheme.

1. Locate any supported archive file in Finder.
2. Select the file.
3. Press the Spacebar.
4. A Quick Look window will appear showing the contents of the archive.

If the preview doesn't appear:

1. Open System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Extensions -> Quick Look.
2. Ensure Prvw is enabled.
3. Run qlmanage -r in Terminal to reset the Quick Look cache.
4. Relaunch Finder (Option + Right Click Finder icon -> Relaunch).

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

This project uses bzip2.swift package from awxkee. Link

Built with ❤️ for macOS.