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Code Open-Sourced: December 1, 2025This codebase is being released early for community testing and feedback. The first public release (2.0.0-pre.1) is coming before Christmas 2025.spacedrive.com still shows v0.4.3. The new site launches with the release. Until then, these docs are your primary resource.

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What is Spacedrive?

Spacedrive is a local-first file manager that unifies data across devices without centralized cloud services. Files stay where they are. Spacedrive creates a content-aware index that makes them searchable, syncable, and manageable from anywhere.

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Why Spacedrive Exists

Computing was designed for single devices. File managers like Finder and Explorer assume your data lives on the computer in front of you. The shift to multi-device forced us into cloud ecosystems. Convenience required giving up data ownership. AI is accelerating this trend. Cloud services offer semantic search and intelligent analysis, but only if you upload your files to their infrastructure. Spacedrive is building the architecture for local AI on hardware you already own, on data that never leaves your control. This is infrastructure for the next era of computing.

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Current State

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What Works Now (December 2025)

Core Infrastructure
  • Daemon-client architecture with persistent background operations
  • Tauri desktop app with working interface
  • CLI with full library, location, job, and network management
  • Resumable job system with checkpointing and progress tracking
Multi-Device Sync
  • Peer-to-peer library sync via Iroh/QUIC with NAT traversal
  • Device pairing with BIP39 mnemonic codes
  • Local network discovery (mDNS) and relay fallback
  • Leaderless sync using Hybrid Logical Clocks (no central server)
  • Device-owned data (locations, files) and shared resources (tags, collections)
  • Incremental sync with watermarks for offline periods
File Management
  • File indexing with shallow, content, and deep modes
  • Content identity and deduplication across devices
  • Unified addressing: local://, s3://, content:// URIs
  • Copy/move operations with atomic and streaming strategies
  • Checksum verification and progress tracking
Cloud Storage
  • Integration via OpenDAL (40+ services supported)
  • S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Azure Blob, GCS
  • Cloud files indexed and searchable like local files
  • Cross-storage operations (local to cloud, cloud to cloud)
Media & Analysis
  • Thumbnail generation
  • OCR text extraction
  • Speech transcription
  • Sampled content hashing (58KB identifies any file size)
Organization
  • Semantic tagging with hierarchies and polymorphic naming
  • Spaces for custom workspace layouts
  • Collections for grouping files
Security
  • Ed25519 device identity with session key derivation
  • XChaCha20-Poly1305 credential encryption
  • OS keyring integration (Keychain, Credential Manager, Secret Service)
Platform Support
  • macOS: Primary testing platform, fully functional
  • Windows & Linux: Should work, community testing needed
  • Mobile: Coming in 2.0.0-pre.1

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Coming in 2.0.0-pre.1 (Before Christmas)

  • Mobile apps (iOS and Android via React Native)
  • Spacedrive Cloud relay servers
  • Extension SDK (stable API)
  • AI integration with local models (Ollama)
  • File sync between devices (library metadata sync works now)
  • New spacedrive.com with public roadmap

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Prototypes (Not Public)

Native Swift apps (iOS, macOS) and a GPUI media viewer exist as private prototypes. These demonstrate type-safe native integration and platform-specific optimizations. They may become production apps if performance demands it.

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How It Works

Spacedrive treats files as first-class objects with content identity. A photo on your laptop and the same photo on your NAS are recognized as one piece of content. Core capabilities:
  • Search millions of files in under 100ms
  • Preview operations before execution (conflicts, space savings, outcomes)
  • Sync peer-to-peer without servers or consensus protocols
  • Track redundancy across devices
  • Full offline functionality
Files stay in place. Spacedrive makes them universally addressable with rich metadata.

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Testing & Feedback

This testing period is important. We need community help validating:
  • Cross-platform compatibility (especially Windows/Linux)
  • v1 to v2 library migration
  • Multi-device sync scenarios
  • Performance at scale
Current v0.4.3 users will migrate when 2.0.0-pre.1 releases. Your testing helps ensure that transition is smooth.
MacOS users: Focus on testing indexing, multi-device sync, and the interface. Windows/Linux users: Report any bugs you encounter. All feedback is valuable.

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For Developers

Most architecture docs are in the Developer section. The core technical documentation lives under Architecture, not in overview guides.
Key technical docs:

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Roadmap

The .tasks folder in the repo tracks core development work. The new landing page (releasing with 2.0.0-pre.1) will have a public roadmap. For now, .tasks and these docs are the best reference.
Some guides are written as if features are complete. This is intentional—they document the release state, not current state. When features aren’t ready yet, you’ll see callouts like this.

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Project Timeline

Spacedrive v2 development began in June 2025. This is a ground-up rewrite addressing lessons from the v1 alpha. The architecture is designed for long-term sustainability, not quick feature delivery. Six months later, the core is stable enough for community testing. The Christmas release will be feature-complete for the advertised capabilities.

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Get Involved

This is a living document. As development progresses toward the Christmas release, this page will be updated to reflect current status.