Getting Started

This page covers installing Beaver, linking your first folder and finding your way around the window.

Requirements

• A Mac running macOS 12 Monterey or later.
• Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) or an Intel processor. There's a separate download for each.
• Enough free disk space for thumbnails. Beaver stores a small preview for each image and video it indexes.

Install Beaver

1. Go to beaver.oddomens.com and download the DMG for your Mac:

   • Apple Silicon for Macs with an M-series chip.
   • Intel for older Intel Macs.

   Not sure which you have? Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. The Chip or Processor line tells you.

2. Open the downloaded DMG.

3. Drag Beaver onto the Applications folder in the window that appears.

4. Eject the DMG, then open Beaver from your Applications folder or Launchpad.

TIP

If macOS says Beaver can't be opened because it's from an unidentified developer, open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to the message about Beaver. You only need to do this once. See Troubleshooting for more.

Beaver has no account, sign-in or setup screen. It opens straight to an empty library.

Link your first folder

Beaver works with folders that already exist on your Mac. It never copies your files into a library of its own.

1. Click Link Folder in the middle of the empty window. Once you have folders linked, use the + button that appears when you hover over the Folders heading in the sidebar.
2. Choose a folder in the file picker and click Open.
3. Beaver starts indexing straight away. The folder icon pulses and a spinning icon appears next to the Beaver logo until the scan finishes. Thumbnails appear as they're generated.

You can link as many folders as you like, including folders on external drives. See Folders & Library for which file types are indexed and how syncing works.

The main window

Area	What it does
Sidebar (left)	Smart views (All Assets, Favorites, Recently Added, Untagged), your linked Folders and their subfolders, your Tags, and the Settings button at the bottom. The Filter folders & tags… box narrows the folder and tag lists.
Header (top)	The search box, the type filter (All, Images, Video, Vectors, Docs) and the Toggle Inspector button.
Toolbar	Sort menu and direction, actions for the selected asset or assets, the grid and masonry layout buttons, and the item count.
Grid (center)	Thumbnails for every asset in the current view. Click to select, double-click to open the viewer.
Inspector (right)	Preview, rating, title, notes, source URL, tags, folder and file details for the selected asset. It appears when you select an asset. See Organizing Assets.

Next steps

• Folders & Library explains views, search, filters and sorting.
• Organizing Assets covers tags, ratings, favorites and notes.
• Managing Files covers renaming, moving, duplicating and deleting.
• Settings lets you change the theme, layout and card details.

Build from source

Beaver is open source. To run it from the code instead of the DMG:

1. Install Node.js 20 or later.

2. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/OddOmens/beaver.git
   cd beaver
   npm install

3. Start the app in development mode:

   npm run dev

   This opens Beaver in its own window with developer tools attached.

Beaver needs its desktop shell to read your folders, so it only runs as a Mac app, not in a web browser.