# Cardinal file search for macOS

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Cardinal file search for macOS and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a fast, accurate, free file search app for macOS; one caveat is that search may not update after a file is deleted.

## What people warn about

- Search doesn't update after file deletion (1 comments): "the current search doesn't update when you delete a file that's in it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167866))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Everything by voidtools](https://hackerapproved.com/p/everything.md): 78 recommend
- [Recoll](https://hackerapproved.com/p/recoll.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Cardinal file search for macOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cardinal/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).