Search Open Finder Windows — Alfred Workflow v3.0.0

Version 3.0.0 - Change Log

Features

• New macOS Tahoe-style folder colors and refreshed icons
• macOS-version–aware icon set selection (macOS 15 and older still show legacy folder icons)

Performance

• Replaced external date calls with zsh/datetime (EPOCHSECONDS) for timestamping
• Removed dynamic $PATH lookups by using absolute executable paths throughout
• Reduced external process spawning where possible by preferring zsh globbing over grep in hot paths

Codebase

• Switched to the macOS-provided jq at /usr/bin/jq (no Homebrew dependency)
• Workflow now uses only system-provided binaries; no third-party dependencies required
• Adopted auto-generated file descriptor for the FIFO instead of hardcoding FD 3
• Replaced [[ ... ]] math with zsh’s built-in (( ... )) arithmetic contexts

Bug fixes

• Avoids potential blocking/hangs when FD 3 is already in use by relying on an auto-assigned FIFO descriptor

Search Open Finder Windows — Alfred Workflow v2.1.1

Version 2.1.1 - Change Log

Features

• Refinements to icons
• Now uses macOS' built-in "Network" icon
• Improved handling of nonstandard windows when Finder is not in focus

Performance

• Consolidated string matching blocks
• Replaced regular expression matching with zsh-optimized case statements and glob patterns
• Implemented more concise, zsh-native parameter expansion
• Explicitly defined remaining executables with their paths to eliminate $PATH lookup

Codebase

• Replaced unnecessary associative arrays with regular arrays

Bug fixes

• Resolves an issue where the displayed name of the iCloud Drive folder would appear incorrectly
• Resolves a rare issue that would cause the script filter to hang if a "Get Info" window's inspected item does not have a real UNIX path

Full Changelog: v2.1.0...v2.1.1

Search Open Finder Windows — Alfred Workflow v2.1.0

Version 2.1.0 - Change Log

Features

• Custom logic now extracts the specific Mac's icon from macOS' /System volume
• Includes a fallback for pre-2023 Mac models
• Added icon for "Documents" folder

Performance

• Replaced all basename calls with zsh parameter expansion

Full Changelog: v2.0.1...v2.1.0

Search Open Finder Windows — Alfred Workflow v2.0.1

Version 2.0.1 - Change Log

Features

• Added icons for AirDrop and network windows
• Updated colors of existing icons

Performance

• Moved all special Finder window type handling from AppleScript to zsh

Bug Fixes

• Fixes an issue where windows would be indexed incorrectly if more than 9 are open

Full Changelog: v2.0.0...v2.0.1

Search Open Finder Windows — Alfred Workflow v2.0.0

Version 2.0.0 - Change Log

Major Features

• Live IPC with AppleScript streaming using FIFO
  • Processes AppleScript output in real-time via a named pipe instead of waiting for completion.
  • Dramatically improves performance with many open windows
  • Uses script -qF to capture live AppleScript output to FIFO
  • zsh now has access to the first window immediately after AppleScript detects it.
• Dynamic trap system with trap_that()
  • Creates a temporary script that runs on exit and self-destructs
  • Commands with variable names are appended to the trap script as they are defined
  • Allows for both early, safe trapping and proper expansion of trapped commands with variables defined later
• Live hidden‑item detection (no Finder relaunch required)
  • A temporary hidden file is created inside a transient test directory; an AppleScript count determines whether Finder is showing it.
  • The result is exposed through showsHidden and affects match string generation
  • Match terms automatically include or exclude hidden files to mirror the user's current setting
  • Why? In current macOS versions, neither defaults nor AppleScript can report whether hidden items.
  • Limitation: Applies to hidden dotfiles (and folders) only (i.e. '.my-item')
    • Items hidden with chflags aren't supported in the standard UNIX shell, due to find's limitation with macOS-specific flags.
    • It's technically possible to check flags as well, but reading the 'hidden' flag of every item in every directory would add far more overhead.

Performance

• Optimized find call into separate functions (list_items_nonhidden() and list_items_all()), chosen dynamically based on showsHidden flag
• Moved certain redundant definitions from the function scope to the main scope
• Replaced multiple processes with
• Single‑shot temp‑dir workflow
  • A new define_dirs() function centralizes all cache/working directories
  • A single /usr/bin/mktemp -d plus a trap handles cleanup only once — no more scattered mkdir/rm
• while read loops with process substitution reduce the need for zsh array parsing.

Codebase Improvements

• Executable map updated
  • All executables are exported once for no $PATH lookups
  • For helper scripts, all executables are now called directly by their absolute paths
• AppleScript now runs immediately after only strictly necessary definitions.
• Smarter sanitize()
  • Replaces the narrow, no‑break space (U+202F) before control‑character escaping
  • Excludes \x0A from conditional check before running perl
  • Improves control flow in the dynamic collapsing of $HOME to ~
  • Better handling of Unicode directional formatting characters
• Streamlined error handling
  • More consistent error checking throughout all scripts
  • Better process management for background operations
• Herestring usage
  • Many process substitutions that used print or echo have been replaced with herestrings.
• More detailed comments added to all scripts

Bug Fixes

• Trash‑path parsing on volumes with spaces is now reliable after a param‑expansion rewrite.

Full Changelog: v1.4.2...v2.0.0

Search Open Finder Windows - Alfred Workflow v1.4.2

Version 1.4.2 - Change Log

Performance

• Defined all executables literally to avoid redundant path lookup in asynchronous loops
• Reduced redundant variable assignments when building window metadata

Misc.

• Enhanced robustness of title/subtitle extraction when dealing with symbolic links
• Fixed rare bug where Trash folders on custom volumes could return invalid POSIX paths

Full Changelog: v1.4.1...v1.4.2

Search Open Finder Windows - Alfred Workflow v1.4.1

Version 1.4.1 - Change Log

New Features

• Trash Detection: Added support for detecting non-empty trash directories across different volume types
• Volume Name Extraction: More accurate volume base path detection and cleaner extraction for mounted drives

Performance

• Replaced sed substitution with zsh-native parameter expansion
• Rewrote removable drive detection using nested awk and grep inside process substitution
• Optimized trash checking by eliminating unnecessary grep -v in favor of direct find exclusion
• Replaced extraction of window info from Finder with faster native zsh string slicing
• Improved caching logic for custom icons by standardizing path processing

Misc.

• Improved matching and title generation for Finder windows representing Trash or Boot Drive
• Ensured consistent collapsing of home paths (${HOME} → ~) except when path is exactly ${HOME}/
• Fixed edge cases where trailing slashes could incorrectly affect title/subtitle extraction
• Refactored how "Get Info" windows are parsed for better consistency
• Optimized images to reduce workflow size from 54 MB to 3.6 MB

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.1

Search Open Finder Windows - Alfred Workflow v1.4.0

Version 1.4.0 - Change Log

New Features

• Extended Matching: For Finder windows, the user can optionally disable matching of directory contents (files/subdirectories) and path components (parent directories)

Performance

• Accelerated construction of match string by using find instead of ls
• Switched to zsh's automatic array separation with IFS instead of while read -r line loop
• Replaced unnecessary spawning of subshells with process substitution wherever possible
• Replaced as much use of coreutils as possible with zsh's parameter expansion
• Added caching for custom icons
• Implemented short-term caching of results (Avoids regeneration of JSON after a window closes)
  • What this does: Results are updated more quickly after closing a window.

Misc.

• Removed window index from match terms (Alfred already has this built-in with hotkeys)
• Added "~" to display titles and match terms for UNIX-style brevity
• Improved AppleScript's handling of window closures
• Simplified formatting of variable names for consistency

Acknowledgements

Big thanks to may-june-july on the Alfred Forum for this version! The optional extended matching feature and the custom icon caching were both recommended by him.

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.0

Search Open Finder Windows - Alfred Workflow v1.3.1

Version 1.3.1 - Change Log

• Removed lingering debug statement from script filter

Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.3.1

Search Open Finder Windows - Alfred Workflow v1.3.0

Version 1.3.0 - Change Log

Performance

• Moved osascript call from subshell to main shell
  • Eliminates unnecessary zsh processes

Stability

• Added handling for nonstandard Finder windows (e.g., "Recents")
• Added handling for edge-case unicode characters in names of windows and folder contents
  • Minimal performance impact (perl only spawned when needed)
• Added handling for carriage returns ("\r") in JSON results
• Relocated custom icon cache from "$HOME" to "/tmp" to reduce clutter
  • Cache remains semi-persistent to allow Alfred to display icons in search results
  • Automatically cleaned up when user exits workflow without performing an action

Quality of Life

• Prioritized custom icon retrieval in icon-fetching sequence
  • Now respects user-assigned custom icons for directories with macOS special icons
  • Example: Custom icon for "Downloads" will override the default folder icon
• New icon for "Recents" window
• Skips more macOS resource forks when building match string

Full Changelog: v1.2.3...v1.3.0