- Platform
- Mac
- Category
- Utilities
- Status
- Under Development
- Price
- Free
Homeflow is a macOS menu-bar file automation tool: a Hazel-style rules engine written in Go and shipped as a single lightweight binary. It watches folders with native FSEvents and runs chained actions — move, rename, OCR, upload to Paperless or Immich, webhooks — with conditions and control flow. In development.
What it does
You describe watches and rules in a YAML file (by default ~/.homeflow/config.yaml): each watch is a folder, each rule a match (extensions, name pattern, minimum size) plus a list of actions. The daemon waits until a file has been stable for a couple of seconds and then runs the matching rule.
- Local actions: move, copy, delete, rename with templates ({date}, {seq}, {stem}), compress, decompress (with a password), checksum, quarantine, run_script.
- macOS actions: Finder tags, notifications and open.
- Homelab integrations: paperless_upload (with tags and title), immich_upload, calibre_copy and n8n_webhook.
- Content actions: OCR with ocrmypdf or tesseract, image info, resize and convert, metadata reading, dedup.
- Control flow: if, switch and for_each, with conditions such as equals, contains, matches, greater/less than, before/after and file_exists.
- Menu bar app with status, pause/resume, a local rule editor and a logs view; CLI commands for tray, watch, run-once, status, config-test, install/uninstall, logs and list-rules.
Passwords and tokens are referenced from the pass password store (!pass) rather than written into the config.
Who it is for
People who used Hazel and want the same “watch this folder, do this” workflow wired to a homelab: invoices straight into Paperless, photos into Immich, ebooks into Calibre, archives extracted and quarantined, with a menu-bar icon and one binary to install.
Privacy and data
Everything runs locally on your Mac; uploads only go to the services you configure yourself. State is kept in a local database under ~/.homeflow.
Frequently asked questions
What is Homeflow?
A file automation daemon for macOS, in the spirit of Hazel: it watches folders with native FSEvents and applies rules you write in YAML, chaining actions such as move, rename, OCR, compress, checksum or upload to Paperless, Immich and Calibre, with if/switch/for_each control flow. It ships as a single Go binary with a menu-bar icon, a local rule editor and logs. It is still in development.
Which integrations does Homeflow have?
Paperless-ngx upload with tags and title, Immich upload for photos and videos, Calibre copy for ebooks, and n8n webhooks for anything else, alongside local actions (move, copy, delete, rename, compress, decompress, quarantine, run a script) and macOS actions (Finder tags, notifications, open). OCR runs through ocrmypdf or tesseract. Service credentials are read from the pass password store rather than stored in the config file.
Is Homeflow a replacement for Hazel?
It aims at the same job — rules that fire when files land in a folder — but with a different emphasis: homelab integrations, a YAML config you can version, control flow (if, switch, for_each) and a single dependency-free binary. It is in development and not yet distributed as a finished app, so treat it as a preview; join the waitlist on this page to be told when it ships.
How is Homeflow configured?
With a YAML file, by default ~/.homeflow/config.yaml. Settings cover the state database, log level, how many seconds a file must be stable before processing and whether the first or all matching rules run. Each watch lists a path and its rules; each rule has a match block (extensions, name pattern, minimum size) and an ordered list of actions with their parameters. A config-test command validates the file before you run the daemon.
Get notified at launch
Homeflow is under development. Leave your email and I'll let you know the moment it ships — no spam.