Applications

cde

The command line program. It is described in the Command reference. The cde executable is a single file that you can copy to any folder. It reads its settings from an appsettings.json file that it finds, or creates, for you. See Configuration.

cdeWin

A Windows Forms application for searching, sorting and browsing catalogs. It needs .NET 10.

cdeWin saves the layout of its window and controls (window position, search patterns, column sizes, search fields) to cdeWinView.cfg.

• Normally the file is in C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Local\cde.
• If a cdeWinView.cfg exists in the current directory when cdeWin starts, cdeWin uses that one instead.

Custom shell commands

You can add your own commands to the right-click menus of the search results, directory tree and directory list. Use them to open a file or folder in another tool, such as a file manager or editor.

Add a CustomCommands array to the appsettings.json next to cdeWin.exe:

{
  "CustomCommands": [
    {
      "Label": "Total Commander",
      "Command": "c:\\Program Files\\Totalcmd\\totalcmd64.exe",
      "Arguments": "/O /T /R=\"{path}\""
    },
    {
      "Label": "Open in VS Code",
      "Command": "code",
      "Arguments": "\"{path}\""
    }
  ]
}

These tokens in Arguments are replaced before the command starts:

Token	Replaced with	Example
{path}	The full path of the entry, with its name	C:\dir\sub\file.txt
{dir}	The directory that holds the entry	C:\dir\sub
{filename}	The name of the entry only	file.txt

• cde does not add quotes. If a path can hold spaces, write "{path}" in the template.
• A command works on one selected entry, and only if that entry exists on this machine. Catalogs are portable, so they can describe files that are not here. If you select several entries, the command does not run once for each.
• Each command is its own item in the menus.
• Older versions had one fixed "Explore Alt" command in an ExplorerAlt section. If it is still there and no CustomCommands exist, cdeWin converts it to a custom command named "Explore Alt".

cde-tauri

A second desktop application, built with Tauri (a Rust shell) around a React and TypeScript web view. It talks to a small local API (cdeApi) that it starts and supervises. The catalog data stays in that process, and the web view only receives small pages of results.

cdeWin and cde-tauri are both thin front ends over the same core, so searches give the same results. The .cdex format and the cde command line are the same for all.

Settings files

cde-tauri keeps its settings in %APPDATA%\cde (on Linux and macOS, ~/.config/cde/ or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cde/). Set CDE_CONFIG_DIR to use another folder on any system.

File	Contents	Written by
ui-state.json	Panel layout, sort order, columns and other view settings	The app
colour-rules.txt	Your colour rules, as you typed them	The app
shell.json	Custom shell commands (optional)	You
appsettings.json	Cde.ConfigPath (the catalog folder) and CustomCommands. The cde command line reads the same file.	The app on first run, then you
%APPDATA%\com.cde.tauri\.window-state.json	Window size and position	The Tauri window-state plugin

• To reset the view or the colour rules, close the app and delete ui-state.json or colour-rules.txt.
• shell.json uses the same CustomCommands array as cdeWin. cdeWin does not read this file. cde-tauri reads it at start, so restart after a change.
• Catalogs are not kept in the settings folder. cde-tauri loads the catalogs in its catalog folder and one level below. Use File ▸ Open Folder… to choose it. cde-tauri remembers the choice.
• cde-tauri does not load legacy .cde catalogs. If the catalog folder has .cde files with no .cdex beside them, it offers to convert them, in the same way as cde migrate. If you choose Not now, it does not ask again for that folder, and the status bar keeps a Migrate… button.

Everything search

Both applications have an Everything checkbox next to Regex. It turns on the same query syntax as cde everything. Help ▸ Search Syntax shows the operators.