How AI multi-taskers organize files, projects, and prompts on macOS — plus deep-dives into the engineering behind mq-dir.
Aider and Claude Code both do agent-style coding from a terminal. They diverge on git workflow, model flexibility, and edit precision. The honest comparison for refactor work.
CLAUDE.md is the most-undervalued AI productivity tool. A good one saves hours per week; a generic one is dead weight. Here's what makes the difference.
Stop pasting the same instructions into every chat. Here's a battle-tested layout for a personal prompt library that you can grep, version-control, and share between Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
Finder is free and integrated everywhere. Forklift costs $19.95 and adds dual-pane, SFTP, sync. Is it worth it for your workflow? An honest yes/no breakdown.
Model Context Protocol matured in 2025-2026. Here are the seven MCP servers that earn their setup cost for AI dev workflows.
Running five Claude Code sessions on one Mac without losing track is a workflow problem, not an AI problem. Here's the layout that survives daily use.
A battle-tested directory layout, naming convention, and 4-pane workflow for running 3–10 Claude Code sessions in parallel without losing artifacts, prompts, or your place. Copy the structure, ship today.
Forklift is the polished native Mac veteran. Commander One is the Total Commander successor. They overlap heavily but feel quite different. The honest comparison.
Marta is a GUI keyboard-first file manager; nnn is a terminal one. Both serve vim-style users. Where do they fit, and which fits your hand?
Path Finder hasn't shipped since 2023. Forklift kept going. If you're still on Path Finder reluctantly, here's the honest comparison plus a third option.
ranger is the vim-philosophy terminal file manager that influenced a generation. mq-dir is the GUI quad-pane app for parallel work. The careful comparison.
Default Folder X augments macOS Open/Save dialogs; mq-dir replaces Finder for navigation. They solve adjacent problems and most users want both.