DECIMEN GitHub

Use in Finder on macOS

The macOS integration adds a Send with Decimen action to Finder. Select a file, choose the action, and macOS opens a Terminal session running decimen send with that file, including paths containing spaces or Unicode characters.

Node.js 18 or newer is required on the Mac. Nothing here needs administrator privileges or an Apple Developer account.

Option 1 — the packaged installer

The macOS package bundles the Decimen CLI, the web app build, and the Finder action:

Download Decimen 0.2.0 for macOS

Open the DMG, double-click Install Decimen.app, and follow the macOS prompts. The package is currently unsigned and not notarized, so Gatekeeper will ask for confirmation on first launch.

Option 2 — install from the repository

Install the CLI and the Finder integration together:

git clone https://github.com/tongatron/decimen-optical-transfer.git
cd decimen-optical-transfer
./macos/install-decimen.sh

The installer builds the web app and the bundled CLI, installs both under ~/.local/share/decimen, and adds the action under ~/Library/Services.

If the CLI is already linked with npm link, install only the Finder integration:

./macos/install-finder-action.sh

An existing workflow with the same name is backed up rather than overwritten.

Use the action

  1. In Finder, select exactly one file.
  2. Open the Action menu — the three-dot button in the Finder toolbar.
  3. Choose Send with Decimen, listed near the bottom of that menu.
  4. A Terminal window opens and a browser page shows the animated QR stream.
  5. Open Decimen's Receiver on the camera device, point it at the stream, and save the file once verification completes.
  6. Press Ctrl+C in the Terminal window to stop the local server.

The action is an Automator service rather than a Finder extension, which is why macOS places it in the Action menu instead of the top-level context menu.

Choose the Receiver host

Point the CLI at the app the receiving device should open:

decimen setup

The public Receiver at https://optical-transfer.tongatron.org/ is the default. macOS stores the choice in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/decimen/config.json. File contents are still served only from 127.0.0.1.

Build a distributable disk image

To produce a DMG containing the prebuilt app, CLI, and Finder workflow:

./macos/build-dmg.sh

The result is written to release/Decimen-<version>.dmg. Pushing a version tag such as v0.2.0 makes the macOS GitHub Actions workflow build the DMG on a macOS runner and attach it to the release automatically.

Remove the integration

./macos/uninstall-finder-action.sh

The uninstaller moves the workflow to the Trash instead of deleting it permanently.

Troubleshooting

If the action does not appear, close and reopen Finder, then confirm the CLI itself works:

command -v decimen
decimen --version
decimen config show
decimen send "$HOME/Downloads/example.pdf"

The terminal must print both a local Decimen sender URL and the configured Receiver app URL, and the browser must show the animated QR stream.

Windows File Explorer and Linux file-manager integrations are documented in the repository README.