DigUp
Side-by-side comparison
| Capability | Spotlight | DigUp |
|---|---|---|
| Find by filename / app name | Excellent, system-wide | Not the primary job |
| Find by file meaning / description | Limited (some content, not multimodal semantic) | Core feature — shared embedding space |
| PDF jump to page | Can open files; page-jump by meaning is DigUp’s angle | Yes — open to matching page |
| Audio / video moment | Not semantic moment search | Yes — open near matching time |
| Code search | Not a code-aware semantic index | Optional code: index |
| Cloud / privacy model | Apple system indexer; Siri Suggestions etc. separately | Local-first; model + index on device; no account |
| Scope | System defaults + exclusions | Only folders you select |
| Hotkey | ⌘Space (default) | ⇧⌘Space |
| Cost / install | Built-in | Free MIT app + ~865 MB model download |
When to use which
- Use Spotlight to launch apps, jump to System Settings panes, find a file you remember by name, or do quick Calculator/definition tasks.
- Use DigUp when you remember what was in the file: “receipt from the blue cafe,” “slide with the Q3 chart,” “recording where we discussed pricing,” “screenshot of the red error.”
- Use both — DigUp does not replace Spotlight. Keep ⌘Space for system search and ⇧⌘Space for semantic digs.
Fair notes
- Spotlight is faster to start for name-based lookups; DigUp’s value is multimodal meaning after indexing.
- First DigUp index takes time proportional to library size and hardware (Metal on Apple Silicon).
- DigUp skips undownloaded iCloud placeholders — files must be local.
- Mac DigUp is 0.6.1 stable as of 2026-10-15; Windows/Linux are separate beta builds.
Sourced product facts
| Fact | Value (2026-10-15) |
|---|---|
| Upstream | ARahim3/DigUp |
| Stars | ~3,716 |
| Mac version | 0.6.1 · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ |
| Model | EmbeddingGemma 2 via llama.cpp · ~865 MB |