ExplorerPro Suite

English | Deutsch | Machine-readable context (llms.txt)

Note

For AI Agents & LLMs: Machine-readable architecture context, search keywords, runtime invariants, and verification entry points are maintained in llms.txt.

ExplorerPro is a modern, privacy-first desktop file manager and power-user explorer suite for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It unites multi-tab directory navigation, instant multi-format file previews (PDF, images, syntax-highlighted source code, markdown), high-performance SQLite FTS5 full-text indexing, hash-based duplicate detection, privacy monitoring, folder synchronization, and an integrated code editor in a single native PySide6 (Qt 6) application.

Overview & Value Proposition

Standard operating system file managers are built for casual browsing and lack the heavy-lifting tools developers, researchers, and power users require daily. ExplorerPro addresses this gap by packaging pro-grade productivity utilities into a cohesive, responsive desktop interface with zero telemetry and 100% local-first data isolation.

Unified Multi-Tab Experience: Browse multiple directories concurrently with tab pinning, breadcrumbs navigation, drag-and-drop, and intelligent context menus.
Deep File Inspection: Instant inline rendering for PDFs (PyMuPDF), images, structured spreadsheets, Markdown, and source code files with auto-detected syntax highlighting.
High-Performance FTS5 Search: Rapid indexing and search across file names and text contents using embedded SQLite Full-Text Search.
Byte-Exact Duplicate Elimination: Dual-stage scanning (file size grouping + MD5/SHA-256 chunk hashing) with side-by-side preview and safe recycling.
Data Privacy & Blacklist Watchdog: Continuous scan indicator alerting users to accidental exposure of credentials, private keys, or blacklisted file patterns.
Integrated Code Editor & Sync Tools: Quick inline editing with indentation guides and one-way/mirror directory synchronization with regex exclusion filters.
6-Language Native Localization: Full dynamic UI translation across English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian.

Visual Showcase Gallery

Main Multi-Tab Explorer & Preview	Advanced FTS5 Content Search

Multi-tab file browsing with tree navigation, favorites, status bar and inline preview.	Instant search filtering by name, content, file extension, and modification dates.

Hash-Based Duplicate Finder	Folder Synchronization Engine

Side-by-side duplicate candidate grouping with preview and safe batch deletion.	Folder mirror and differential sync with pattern-based exclusions and safety logs.

System Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the layered architecture of ExplorerPro, showcasing the decoupled presentation, background processing engines, and local-first storage invariants:

flowchart TD
    subgraph UI ["PySide6 Desktop UI Layer (Qt 6)"]
        MW["MainWindow\n(Docking, Toolbars, Menu, Language Switcher)"]
        TB["FileBrowser\n(Multi-Tab, _DnDTableView, ContextMenu)"]
        PV["PreviewPanel\n(PyMuPDF PDF, Images, Markdown, Syntax View)"]
        SB["SidebarPanel\n(Directory Tree, Favorites, App Launcher)"]
        QE["QuickEditor\n(Syntax Highlighter, Line Numbers, UTF-8 Guard)"]
        DF["DuplicateFinderDialog\n(Candidate Tree, Checkboxes, Diff View)"]
        SP["SyncPanel\n(Source/Target Pairing, Diff Engine, Sync Worker)"]
        PI["PrivacyIndicator\n(Traffic-Light Status, Accessible A11y Hook)"]
    end

    subgraph Core ["Core Application Services"]
        EB["EventBus / Signal Dispatcher\n(Decoupled Cross-Component Messaging)"]
        SM["SettingsManager\n(JSON Config, %LOCALAPPDATA% Isolation)"]
        TE["ThemeEngine & Palette\n(Dark/Light Qt Styles, Dynamic Icons)"]
        I18N["Translator & i18n Catalog\n(6 Languages: DE, EN, ES, ZH, JA, RU)"]
    end

    subgraph Engines ["Background Indexing & Analysis Engines"]
        FTS["SQLite FTS5 Full-Text Engine\n(WAL Mode, Tokenized Content Index)"]
        HASH["HashEngine (MD5 / SHA-256)\n(Size Grouping, Chunk-based Hashing)"]
        PM["PrivacyMonitor\n(Regex Blacklist Engine, Sensitive Name Watcher)"]
        SW["SearchWorker & ThreadPool\n(Asynchronous QThread Execution)"]
    end

    subgraph Safety ["File Operations & Safety Layer"]
        FO["Safe File Operations\n(Recycle Bin Integration, OS-Safe Delete)"]
        CP["Collision-Free Paste Engine\n(Auto-Suffixing, Zero-Overwrite Guard)"]
        EXP["Workspace Exporter\n(Redacted explorerpro-workspace-v1 JSON)"]
        LNK["Shortcut Resolver\n(Windows .lnk Target Resolution & Validation)"]
    end

    subgraph Invariants ["Platform & Privacy Invariants"]
        ZERO["100% Offline / Zero-Egress\n(No Telemetry, No Cloud, Zero Remote APIs)"]
        NONELEV["Non-Elevation User Mode\n(Runs strictly without Administrator privileges)"]
        MULTI["Cross-Platform Ready\n(Windows Primary / Linux & macOS Source Parity)"]
    end

    %% UI Connections
    MW --> TB
    MW --> PV
    MW --> SB
    MW --> QE
    MW --> DF
    MW --> SP
    MW --> PI

    %% Core Services Connections
    MW -.-> EB
    TB -.-> EB
    PV -.-> EB
    EB <--> SM
    EB <--> TE
    EB <--> I18N

    %% Engines Connections
    TB --> SW
    SW --> FTS
    DF --> HASH
    TB --> PM
    PM --> PI

    %% Safety Connections
    TB --> FO
    TB --> CP
    MW --> EXP
    PV --> LNK

    %% Invariant Guards
    Core -.-> ZERO
    Engines -.-> NONELEV
    Safety -.-> MULTI

End-to-End Processing Lifecycle

The sequence diagram below shows the asynchronous execution lifecycle for user browsing, full-text FTS5 search queries, inline preview extraction, and safe duplicate scanning:

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor User as Power User / Desktop
    participant UI as MainWindow & FileBrowser
    participant EB as EventBus Dispatcher
    participant Worker as Background QThread Worker
    participant Index as SQLite FTS5 / HashEngine
    participant Preview as Preview Engine (PyMuPDF / Qt)
    participant FS as Local Filesystem & Recycle Bin

    Note over User,FS: 1. Asynchronous Directory Navigation & Preview Request
    User->>UI: Selects file / Switches folder tab
    UI->>EB: emit file_selected(path, mime_type)
    EB->>Preview: Request preview generation
    Preview->>FS: Read file chunk / parse document structure
    Preview-->>UI: Rendered QPixmap / Syntax QSyntaxHighlighter
    UI-->>User: Instant visual preview display

    Note over User,FS: 2. Full-Text Search (FTS5) Query Workflow
    User->>UI: Types query in Search Toolbar (e.g. "confidential project")
    UI->>Worker: Launch SearchWorker(query, filters, search_content=True)
    Worker->>Index: Execute FTS5 MATCH query on local SQLite index
    Index-->>Worker: Stream matching file paths + line offsets
    Worker-->>UI: emit results_chunk_ready(matches)
    UI-->>User: Live results population in TableView

    Note over User,FS: 3. Hash-Based Duplicate Scan & Deletion
    User->>UI: Opens Duplicate Finder & clicks "Scan Folder"
    UI->>Worker: Start DuplicateScanner(target_dir, min_size=1KB)
    Worker->>FS: Scan file sizes (Group identical sizes)
    Worker->>Index: Compute chunk MD5 / full SHA-256 for candidate groups
    Worker-->>UI: emit duplicates_found(grouped_hash_map)
    UI-->>User: Display duplicate candidate tree
    User->>UI: Selects redundant copy & clicks "Delete Selected"
    UI->>FS: Safe recycle / os.remove(unselected_path)
    FS-->>UI: Confirmation of space reclaimed
    UI-->>User: Updated status bar + reclaimed disk space notification

Key Capabilities & Runtime Invariants

Capability / Invariant	Implementation Detail	Guarantee & User Benefit
Local-First & Zero-Egress	Pure local runtime (`src/core/`, `src/modules/`)	100% Offline. No telemetry, analytics, or network calls. Zero data egress.
Non-Elevation User Mode	Standard unprivileged permissions	Never prompts for UAC/sudo elevation. Safe execution in managed corporate environments.
Multi-Tab File Browser	PySide6 `QTableView` + `_DnDTableView`	Tab pinning, directory breadcrumbs, drag-and-drop, sortable columns, and context menus.
Multi-Format Preview	PyMuPDF (`fitz`), Pillow, PySide6	High-speed viewing of PDF, PNG, JPEG, SVG, Markdown, JSON, YAML, and source code files.
SQLite FTS5 Full-Text Search	SQLite WAL-mode + FTS5 virtual tables	Sub-second full-text and filename search across thousands of local project documents.
Hash-Based Duplicate Finder	2-Phase MD5/SHA-256 Hashing	Eliminates duplicate disk clutter with side-by-side inspection and safe recycling.
Privacy & Blacklist Watchdog	Regex pattern matcher (`src/modules/privacy/`)	Real-time traffic-light status alerting if credentials, `.env`, or sensitive files appear.
Integrated Quick Editor	QPlainTextEdit + SyntaxHighlighter	Fast inline editing with syntax highlighting for Python, C/C++, JSON, XML, Markdown.
Folder Synchronization	Differential sync engine (`src/modules/sync/`)	Local folder mirror and sync with pattern exclusions, diff preview, and safety logs.
Sanitized Workspace Export	`explorerpro-workspace-v1` standard	Redacts absolute system paths and credentials when exporting configurations.
Universal 6-Language i18n	`locales/translations.json`	100% localized across English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian.
Accessibility (A11y)	Accessible Qt widgets & keyboard focus	Full screen-reader descriptions, high-contrast palette support, and shortcut bindings.

Keyboard Shortcuts

ExplorerPro provides comprehensive keyboard control designed for high-efficiency navigation:

Shortcut	Context	Action
`Ctrl` + `N`	Global	Open a new ExplorerPro window
`Ctrl` + `T`	Browser	Open a new directory tab
`Ctrl` + `W`	Browser	Close active directory tab
`Ctrl` + `Tab`	Browser	Cycle through open directory tabs
`Ctrl` + `F`	Global	Focus search bar and trigger FTS5 search
`F2`	Browser	Rename selected file or folder
`Delete`	Browser	Delete selected items (with confirmation dialog)
`Ctrl` + `C`	Browser	Copy selected files/folders to clipboard
`Ctrl` + `V`	Browser	Paste files from clipboard (with collision-free auto-suffix)
`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `N`	Browser	Create a new folder in current directory
`F5`	Global	Refresh current directory listing and file preview
`Alt` + `Left`	Browser	Navigate back in folder history
`Alt` + `Right`	Browser	Navigate forward in folder history
`Alt` + `Up`	Browser	Navigate up to parent directory
`Ctrl` + `,`	Global	Open application settings dialog (5 Tabs)
`Ctrl` + `Q`	Global	Safely exit application

Installation & Quick Start

Prerequisites

Python 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12
Operating System: Windows 10/11, Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch), or macOS (12+)

Clone and Setup Environment

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/file-bricks/ExplorerPro.git
cd ExplorerPro

# 2. Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv

# On Windows:
.venv\Scripts\activate

# On Linux / macOS:
source .venv/bin/activate

# 3. Install production dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Launch ExplorerPro

# Direct launch via Python:
python src/main.py

# Windows standalone launcher script:
START_ExplorerPro.bat

Microsoft Store & Packaging

ExplorerPro is actively published in the Microsoft Store under package identity Geiger.ExplorerPro (Store ID: 9P0X52WSHZ3Q).

To run the local Store Readiness preflight audit:

# Run store readiness validation (icons, manifests, screenshot sets):
python scripts/check_store_readiness.py

# Regenerate high-resolution redacted store screenshots:
python generate_store_screenshots.py

Store documentation:

STORE_LISTING.md — Official Store listing copy and localized descriptions.
WINDOWS_STORE_PREP.md — MSIX packaging procedure and manifest layout.
SUPPORT.md — Support contacts and issue handling.

Testing & Quality Gates

ExplorerPro enforces strict quality gates, automated contract tests, and multi-OS CI validation:

# Run full automated test suite (215+ tests):
python -m pytest -q

# Run bytecode compilation across all modules:
python -m compileall -q src tests manage_translations.py translator.py

# Run static linting and code hygiene:
python -m ruff check .

# Run cross-platform desktop smoke test:
python tests/source_platform_smoke.py

# Verify i18n translation coverage across 6 languages:
python manage_translations.py .

CI Matrix Status

Every commit and pull request is automatically verified via GitHub Actions CI across:

Operating Systems: windows-latest, ubuntu-latest, macos-latest
Python Versions: 3.10, 3.11, 3.12
Quality Gates: compileall, ruff check ., pytest offscreen suite, and source_platform_smoke.py.

Privacy & Security

ExplorerPro adheres to uncompromising privacy and defensive engineering practices:

100% Offline Assurance: Zero network sockets are opened during runtime. ExplorerPro never connects to external servers, clouds, or telemetry endpoints.
Destructive Safety Guard: All deletions trigger explicit modal confirmation dialogues with default focus on Cancel. Pasting never silently overwrites existing data; automatic non-colliding suffixes (_copy, _copy_2) are assigned.
Privacy Policy: See PRIVACY_POLICY.md.
Security Policy: Bilingual vulnerability reporting procedures and direct coordinator contacts in SECURITY.md.

Sibling Ecosystem

ExplorerPro is part of the open-bricks open-source software family and collaborates seamlessly with related desktop tools and MCP infrastructure:

Repository	Organization	Domain / Focus	Parity & Integration
ProFiler	`file-bricks`	Batch file metadata analysis & categorizer	Companion file categorization engine
ProSync	`file-bricks`	High-performance folder synchronization	Standalone enterprise folder synchronization
SQLiteViewer	`file-bricks`	Visual SQLite database inspector	Direct inspector for ExplorerPro FTS5 search databases
SoftwareCenter	`file-bricks`	Local desktop software inventory & launcher	Ecosystem launcher and updater hub
WinStorePackager	`file-bricks`	Automated MSIX store packaging & WACK tooling	Toolchain packaging generator for Store releases
DokuZen	`doc-bricks`	Document management & destructive redaction	Companion for advanced OCR & permanent document redaction
FormularErstellen	`doc-bricks`	Dynamic form creation & PDF document generation	Standardized PDF forms generator
CodeBox	`dev-bricks`	Multi-language code editor & IDE	Standalone developer IDE for complex programming
automizer-for-claude-desktop	`dev-bricks`	Desktop task queuing & automator	Desktop agent integration and workflow automation
ellmos-controlcenter-mcp	`ellmos-ai`	Model Context Protocol gateway & routing	MCP gateway integration for AI tooling
open-bricks	`open-bricks`	Umbrella umbrella repository	Central umbrella portal for all open-source tools

License & Liability

ExplorerPro is open-source software licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for complete terms.

Third-party dependencies and their respective licenses (PySide6 LGPL-3.0, PyMuPDF AGPL-3.0, Pandas BSD-3, Openpyxl MIT) are fully documented in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt.

Haftungsausschluss / Disclaimer

Dieses Projekt wird unentgeltlich als Open-Source-Software bereitgestellt. Nutzung auf eigenes Risiko. Es gibt keine Wartungszusage, Verfügbarkeitsgarantie, Gewähr für Fehlerfreiheit oder Eignung für einen bestimmten Zweck.

This project is provided as unpaid open-source software. Use it at your own risk. No warranty, maintenance promise, availability guarantee, or fitness for a particular purpose is assumed.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
README/screenshots		README/screenshots
_sources		_sources
assets		assets
locales		locales
scripts		scripts
src		src
store_assets		store_assets
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
ARCHITEKTUR.md		ARCHITEKTUR.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
EXPORTFORMAT.md		EXPORTFORMAT.md
ExplorerPro.ico		ExplorerPro.ico
ExplorerPro.spec		ExplorerPro.spec
LICENSE		LICENSE
PORTIERUNGSPLAN.md		PORTIERUNGSPLAN.md
PRIVACY_POLICY.md		PRIVACY_POLICY.md
README.md		README.md
README_de.md		README_de.md
ROADMAP.md		ROADMAP.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
START_ExplorerPro.bat		START_ExplorerPro.bat
STORE_LISTING.md		STORE_LISTING.md
SUITE_EXPLORERPRO_TEMPLATE.md		SUITE_EXPLORERPRO_TEMPLATE.md
SUPPORT.md		SUPPORT.md
THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt		THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt
WINDOWS_STORE_PREP.md		WINDOWS_STORE_PREP.md
build_exe.bat		build_exe.bat
generate_store_screenshots.py		generate_store_screenshots.py
llms.txt		llms.txt
manage_translations.py		manage_translations.py
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
pytest.ini		pytest.ini
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
store_package.json		store_package.json
translator.py		translator.py

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