This product was not featured by Product Hunt yet. It will not be visible on their landing page and won't be ranked (cannot win product of the day regardless of upvotes).
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Forel
File automation for macOS — free, open source, and private
Forel is a free, open-source macOS file automation app that watches folders and organizes files with local rules.File automation for macOS. The Hazel alternative for macOS
I've been using Hazel for years. Great tool but I kept hitting the same wall: I wanted to know exactly what was touching my files, and I wanted something I could actually read, fork, and trust. I couldn't find an open source alternative that felt genuinely native and polished.
Forel watches folders you choose and applies rules match by filename, extension, size, or date, then move, copy, rename, tag, or run a script. It lives in your menu bar and runs in the background, even when the window is closed.
What makes it different:
Fully open source (MIT). Read the code, audit it, fork it.
100% on-device. No network calls, no analytics, no backend. It can't phone home because there's nothing to phone home to.
Free. No license fee, no subscription, no trial
About Forel on Product Hunt
“File automation for macOS — free, open source, and private”
Forel was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 5 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #95 on the daily leaderboard. Forel is a free, open-source macOS file automation app that watches folders and organizes files with local rules.File automation for macOS. The Hazel alternative for macOS
On the analytics side, Forel competes within Open Source and Menu Bar Apps — topics that collectively have 80.8k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Forel performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Forel?
Forel was hunted by Lionel Guichard. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of Forel including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Lionel Guichard
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I've been using Hazel for years. Great tool but I kept hitting the same wall: I wanted to know exactly what was touching my files, and I wanted something I could actually read, fork, and trust. I couldn't find an open source alternative that felt genuinely native and polished.
Forel watches folders you choose and applies rules match by filename, extension, size, or date, then move, copy, rename, tag, or run a script. It lives in your menu bar and runs in the background, even when the window is closed.
What makes it different:
Fully open source (MIT). Read the code, audit it, fork it.
100% on-device. No network calls, no analytics, no backend. It can't phone home because there's nothing to phone home to.
Free. No license fee, no subscription, no trial