Nova Files

A production-grade iOS file manager built with SwiftUI, targeting iOS 17+.

Nova Files is a self-contained file browser with a cinematic dark interface: folder navigation (grid + list), search, favorites, color tags, a biometric Locked Folder, archive extraction/inspection, batch operations, drag & drop, and storage analytics — zero third-party dependencies.

Features

• Browse — grid & list views, breadcrumb trails, quick-access chips (Recents, Favorites, Locked Folder, Downloads), animated hero folder expansion, pull-to-refresh.
• Search — live, debounced, full-sandbox search grouped by file kind, with kind filters and a persisted recent-searches row.
• Favorites & Tags — star anything, color-tag files, filter by kind.
• Locked Folder — Face ID / Touch ID gated private folder.
• Operations — rename, move, copy, delete-to-trash with Undo, multi-select batch actions, zip compress, drag & drop, document & photo import.
• Preview — native Quick Look for documents/media/archives, plus a rich metadata preview sheet.
• Storage — animated donut chart of the whole sandbox by category, device usage bar, cache cleanup with freed-space reporting.
• Security — optional biometric app lock on launch.

Design System

Everything visual flows from a single source of truth in FileManagerApp/Utilities/:

• Theme.swift — cinematic dark palette (#0A0A0C base), typography, shadows.
• AppMotion.swift — one shared spring (response 0.4, dampingFraction 0.8).
• Haptics.swift — lightweight static haptic generators.

Architecture

MVVM with observation-driven state:

FileManagerApp/
  App/          Entry point, AppState (phase routing, toasts, app lock)
  Models/       FileItem, FolderNode, settings, preferences, toast messages
  Services/     FileService, StorageService, SecurityService, SearchService,
                ZipService (hand-rolled zlib-based archive support)
  ViewModels/   One per screen (Folder, Search, Favorites, Settings,
                LockedFolder, Preview)
  Views/        Root, Browser, Search, Favorites, Settings, Storage,
                LockedFolder, Preview sheet, onboarding & splash
  Components/   Reusable views (tab bar, cells, rows, toasts, chips, …)
  Utilities/    Theme, motion, haptics, formatters, extensions

FileService owns all filesystem mutations (and the trash/undo bookkeeping); view models are thin coordinators; views never touch the filesystem directly.

Build

Open FileManagerApp.xcodeproj in Xcode 16+ (the project uses synchronized file-system groups, so new files under FileManagerApp/ are picked up automatically) and run the FileManager scheme on an iOS 17+ simulator or device. No package resolution or CocoaPods needed.

Or from the terminal:

./scripts/build.sh                    # Debug, generic iOS simulator

Verification

./scripts/verify_services.sh          # 11/11 headless checks (zip + formatting)
./scripts/smoke_launch.sh             # boot sim, install, launch, confirm alive

Status

Milestone reached — 130 pushes / commits to this repository with a green, warning-free build, an 11-check headless verification suite and a passing simulator smoke launch. See CHANGELOG.md for the full build history.

License

All rights reserved. This project is a personal build-milestone showcase.