Intake for macOS
Intake renames every download the moment it finishes, then files it into the right folder — on your schedule, on your Mac.
Free and open source. Signed and notarized by Apple.
Rename
The second a file is complete and stable, Intake gives it a name a human can read. It happens instantly — before any filing, and entirely on your Mac.
Underscores, hyphens and stray spacing become words. Report (1).pdf becomes Report.pdf.
A small allowlist keeps products and acronyms correct — macOS, iPhone, Q1, iOS.
If a different file already holds the name, Intake adds a quiet 2 suffix. Nothing is overwritten. Nothing is deleted.
Every rename lands in Activity with an Undo button next to it. One click puts the old name back.
Wait before organizing
A download you just finished usually wants opening, not filing. New files stay where they land for two hours by default — long enough to use them, then they're put away.
The two are independent. Renaming is instant and always on by default; only filing waits.
Rules
Filing is deterministic: your file type decides where it goes, and a folder is created only when a file actually needs one. Nothing is pre-made. Nothing is guessed.
pdf · doc · docx · pages
txt · rtf · odt · md
xls · xlsx · numbers
csv · tsv
ppt · pptx · key · odp
png · jpg · jpeg · heic
webp · gif · svg · tiff
mp4 · mov · m4v
mkv · webm
mp3 · m4a · wav
aiff · flac
zip · 7z · rar
tar · gz
dmg · pkg · mpkg
anything unmatched —
only if something lands here
Lazy folders. Intake never pre-creates an empty category. A folder appears the first time a file needs it — and not a day sooner.
Rules can match where a file came from, what it's called, or how big it is. Combine them; the first match in your list wins. Source domains are read from local file metadata — Intake never makes a network request to resolve one.
Add year or month subfolders — Images/2026-09/photo.jpg — or keep it flat. The choice is per rule.
bank.com files itselfInvoice* meets its matchWatch folders
Downloads is the obvious one. Add Desktop, Screenshots, or any folder you like — each keeps its own wait time, rules and toggles.
Renaming on · Filing after 2 hours
Renaming on · Filing immediately
Renaming on · Filing paused
Renaming on · Filing after 1 day
Five is the limit — and each folder gets its own Pause, so one stalled folder never stops the rest.
Control
Intake never asks for blind trust. Every action is previewed before it happens, logged after it happens, and reversible with one click.
Organize Existing… scans the root of your watch folders and shows you exactly what it would rename and where each file would go — grouped by destination, with new folders marked.
Nothing is touched until you click Organize. It's a one-shot you run when you choose, and it works even with Automatic organizing turned off.
Intake will rename and file loose items in the folder root using your current rules. Files already in category folders are left alone.
Activity is a full audit trail — every rename, move, skip and error, newest first. Reveal any file in Finder, copy its path, or put it back exactly where it was.
Undo covers your recent renames and moves — the last twenty, kept in order. Old entries stay in Activity as history.
Intake surfaces the candidates — stale files, duplicates, abandoned downloads, and installers for apps you already have — with the reason beside each one.
You decide every row: File Away, Keep, or Delete. Nothing is removed without your confirmation, and anything you delete goes to the Trash.
The age threshold is yours — anywhere from 1 to 365 days.
Content-aware rename · Optional
Turn it on and Intake reads the first page of a PDF or an image, then proposes a name like 2026-09-14 Invoice Acme.pdf. Off by default — and generated on your Mac with Apple's on-device model.
If the model isn't confident, the name it proposes is simply discarded — your Title Case name stays. OpenRouter is available as an alternative provider if you prefer, and Intake asks before any file text leaves your Mac.
Privacy
Intake is local-first. It touches your files and nothing else — and makes no network request unless you turn one on.
Renames, rules, domain lookups and cleanup all run on your Mac. The default naming provider, On this Mac, sends file contents nowhere.
OpenRouter is opt-in and off by default. Intake asks before file text leaves your Mac, and before it requests notification permission — never at launch.
No analytics, no tracking, no update-checks pinging home. Feedback is a prefilled GitHub issue you send yourself, only when you choose to.
Native citizen
A real macOS app — not a website in a trench coat. It follows the platform, so it never fights it.
Status, Pause, Organize Existing… and Activity, always one click away. Hide either one — but not both.
Batched summaries, never one alert per file. Off by default; permission is only requested when you turn it on.
System semantic colors throughout, so Intake looks correct next to every other window you have open.
Animations respect your accessibility settings, alongside Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency.
Pause filing from the menu bar, per folder. Renaming keeps working — the two controls are independent.
Built with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Open the DMG, drag to Applications, done — no workarounds.
Questions
Requires macOS 26 or later. Apple silicon or Intel.