Finder works on your Mac, and nowhere else.

Only the folders you choose.

You add a folder with the macOS folder picker. Finder looks inside that folder and nowhere else.

It reads PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents, along with text-based files such as .txt, .md, .csv, .json, .xml and .log — and text-based source files such as .js, .py, .ts and .sql.

It skips version-control and build folders such as .git, .svn and node_modules.

What the index contains.

To search inside a document, Finder has to read its text. That text is stored in the index, on this Mac, so a later search does not have to reopen the file.

The index also records each file's path, name, size, dates and ownership. For documents that carry them, it reads the properties the document itself contains — title, author, company, keywords and similar.

The index is a database file inside Finder's own application container.

Finder can read. It cannot change anything.

Finder receives read-only permission for the folders you add. It cannot rename, move, edit or delete your files.

This is enforced by macOS, not by Finder's own restraint — the permission Finder asks for does not include writing.

No network. No account.

KeyLen Finder has no network access. The app runs sandboxed without a network entitlement, so macOS will refuse a connection even if the app tried to make one. Nothing you index is ever sent anywhere.

Finder does contain links, and it can open a file for you in its default application. When you click one, Finder hands the address to your browser or to whichever app handles that file. Finder itself makes no request. The browser or app that opens it is governed by its own privacy policy.

There is nothing to sign up for, and nothing to sign in to.

No analytics. No crash reports.

Finder contains no analytics, no usage tracking and no crash-reporting service. Release builds do not write log files. There are no third-party services in the app at all.

Removing a location stops the search. It does not delete anything.

If you remove a folder, Finder stops looking there and releases the permission macOS granted it. Your files are untouched — and the index entries already built for that folder stay in the index.