A blazing-fast, GPU-accelerated file explorer built with Rust and GPUI.

Nexus Explorer is a next-generation file manager designed for speed. Built on the GPUI framework (from the Zed editor), it achieves sub-16ms response times by leveraging GPU acceleration and an asynchronous, non-blocking architecture.

The UI never waits for the file system. Directory contents appear instantly from cache while background workers reconcile with the disk.

• GPU-Accelerated Rendering - Smooth 120Hz scrolling through millions of files
• Parallel Directory Traversal - Uses jwalk for 4x faster scanning than traditional methods
• Fuzzy Search - Powered by nucleo (from Helix editor), up to 8x faster than fzf
• Multiple View Modes - List, Grid, Column, and Dual-Pane views
• Quick Look - Preview files without opening them
• Integrated Terminal - Full terminal emulator built-in
• Smart Folders - Save complex search queries as virtual folders
• Tags & Favorites - Organize files with color-coded tags
• Tabs & Multi-Window - Work with multiple locations simultaneously
• Theme Support - Light and dark themes with customization
• Cross-Platform - macOS, Windows, and Linux support

Each tab maintains its own terminal instance with full state preservation. The terminal automatically follows your folder navigation, eliminating the need to manually cd when browsing directories.

Homebrew (recommended):

brew tap augani/nexus-explorer
brew install nexus-explorer

Or download the DMG:

• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3)
• Intel

Scoop:

scoop bucket add nexus https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer
scoop install nexus-explorer

Or download:

• MSI Installer (recommended)
• ZIP Archive

AppImage (universal):

wget https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer/releases/latest/download/NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.AppImage

Debian/Ubuntu:

wget https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer/releases/latest/download/NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.deb
sudo dpkg -i NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.deb

Manual install:

wget https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer/releases/latest/download/NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf NexusExplorer-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd nexus-explorer
sudo ./install.sh

git clone https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer.git
cd nexus-explorer
cargo build --release
./target/release/nexus-explorer

• Rust 1.75 or later
• macOS 12+, Windows 10+, or Linux with Vulkan support

macOS: Install Xcode command line tools:

xcode-select --install

Linux: Install dependencies:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libxcb1-dev libxkbcommon-dev libvulkan-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install libxcb-devel libxkbcommon-devel vulkan-loader-devel

• List View - Traditional detailed list with columns
• Grid View - Icon grid with thumbnails
• Column View - Miller columns for hierarchical navigation
• Dual Pane - Side-by-side file management

Nexus Explorer follows a strict separation between UI and I/O:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Main Thread (UI)                      │
│  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐  │
│  │Workspace│  │ FileList │  │ Sidebar │  │ Preview  │  │
│  └────┬────┘  └────┬─────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬─────┘  │
│       │            │             │            │         │
│       └────────────┴─────────────┴────────────┘         │
│                         │                                │
│                    ┌────┴────┐                          │
│                    │ Models  │                          │
│                    └────┬────┘                          │
└─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┘
                          │ async channels
┌─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┐
│              Background Executor (GPUI)                  │
│                    ┌────┴────┐                          │
│                    │ Tasks   │                          │
│                    └────┬────┘                          │
└─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┘
                          │ spawn_blocking
┌─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┐
│                 Tokio Thread Pool                        │
│  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐  │
│  │ jwalk   │  │  notify  │  │  icons  │  │  search  │  │
│  └─────────┘  └──────────┘  └─────────┘  └──────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. No blocking on main thread - All I/O happens in background threads
2. Batched updates - File entries are batched (100 items or 16ms) to prevent render thrashing
3. Generational requests - Stale results from previous navigations are discarded
4. LRU caching - Recently visited directories are cached for instant back-navigation
5. Virtualized rendering - Only visible rows are rendered, enabling millions of files

• Language: Rust
• UI Framework: GPUI (GPU-accelerated)
• Async Runtime: Tokio
• Directory Traversal: jwalk (parallel, work-stealing)
• Search Engine: nucleo (fuzzy matching)
• File Watching: notify (cross-platform)

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide before submitting a PR.

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/augani/nexus-explorer.git

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with debug logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run

• Run cargo fmt before committing
• Run cargo clippy and address warnings
• Add tests for new functionality

• Windows NTFS USN Journal integration for instant search
• Linux io_uring support for maximum I/O throughput
• Cloud storage integration (S3, GCS, Azure)
• Plugin system for extensions
• Batch rename with regex support
• Archive creation and extraction
• Network drive support (SMB, NFS)

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

• GPUI - The GPU-accelerated UI framework
• jwalk - Parallel directory traversal
• nucleo - Fuzzy matching engine
• adabraka-ui - UI component library

Built with ❤️ and Rust