GUIDE · SEARCH BY MEANING
Short answer: Spotlight and Finder only match the words you type. To find a file by what it is about, use Shlexball. A language model running on your Mac turns your request into the words your files actually use, then searches inside them. After a one-time model download it needs no internet. The video below was recorded with Wi-Fi switched off.
24 September 2026 · 4 minute read
The Wi-Fi icon at the top of the recording is crossed out for the whole run. Nothing leaves the Mac; nothing could.
Recorded on an Apple silicon Mac in a sample folder of made-up documents.
Watch the 1-minute video on YouTube · More how-to videos
| What we typed | What Shlexball found | Why a keyword search misses it |
|---|---|---|
| complaint to my landlord about the heating | to Maple Row.docx: “The radiators in apartment 3B have not come on…” | The letter never says “complaint”, “landlord” or “heating”. |
| my car insurance | policy_docs.pdf: “Policy Declarations… Vehicle: 2019 Subaru Outback” | The word “insurance” is not in the file or its name. |
Above each set of results Shlexball says what else it looked for. For the heating letter that was lessor, property owner, heating system; for the car policy, vehicle, coverage. The file closest to the request comes first, and every card previews the opening lines.
Cloud AI assistants can answer questions about a file you upload. They cannot search a folder on your Mac without your files leaving it. Shlexball keeps the whole loop local: the model, the request and the documents. That makes it usable for the files you would least want uploaded: tax forms, leases, medical letters, offer letters. It also keeps working on a plane.
Adding related words is not the same as understanding every document. We also asked for “proof my dog got a rabies shot”. The vet record was found, but second: a bread recipe came first, because its dough is left to proof overnight. When that happens, add a word the document itself is likely to use, or name the file type, and ask again.
You describe what a file is about and the search finds it even when the file uses different words. “My car insurance” finds a document titled Policy Declarations that never says insurance.
Only once, to download about 3.1 GB of model files during setup. After that, searching works offline. The demo video on this page was recorded with Wi-Fi switched off.
No. The language model runs on your Mac’s Apple silicon and your files are read on your Mac. Optional sharing of search prompts is off until you turn it on, and shared diagnostics exclude document contents, previews and result paths. See the privacy policy.
No. There is no embedding index to build. The model reads your request, keeps your own words, adds the related words a document might use instead, and searches the text of your files when you ask. It lists the extra words above the results so you can see what it tried.
No. Shlexball reads the files in the one folder you choose at the moment you search, so there is no background indexing.
No. It only reads. It never changes, moves or deletes a file, commands that would are blocked, and it only looks inside the folder you choose.
The text inside PDFs, plain text, Markdown, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx and .xlsm), CSV and TSV files, plus file and folder names of any type. For PDFs, see how to search inside PDFs on a Mac.
macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon with 16 GB of memory. The first 30 searches are free with no account, then it is $9 a month or $59 a year. See pricing.
Install Shlexball, let the model download once, then switch Wi-Fi off and describe a file you cannot name.
▶ DOWNLOAD SHLEXBALLmacOS 15 or later. Apple silicon. 16 GB memory.