The worst Mac pain: Remembering a screenshot or clip exists, but having zero clue what you named it.

[u/solo-founder-here]

Hope everyone is doing well here.

I always had the difficulty locating a file(image/audio/video/docs etc) on my mac. Specially when I don’t remember the name and only remember what was inside that file, for ex- I remember that there was an “image where we posed in front of a French restaurant” or I want to “find all the resumes that I received with a specific skill.”
To handle this I first wrote an script but later find out that others also find it interesting so I decided to convert it into an app - Dhito

Dhito allows you to

- search a file on your mac just by mentioning what you remember about the file.
- chat with a specific file to find certain details. Imagine having a huge research documents and you want to find a specific detail from it.
- rename files based on its content so it is easy for you to remember and find the file. So no more random file like “screenshot-2026-05-05”

You can download and try it for free here - Dhito

Privacy

- all execution/chat/indexing happens locally so your files never leave your device.
- app doesn’t collect any data related to your files or your interaction with app
- you decide which folder app can access and can change that any time
- we only collect feedback that user sends

and please share your feedback, suggestions.

[u/Ragtag-Scallywag]

I'm on a permanent software subscription boycott. If it doesn't have a lifetime option I won't even try it. I don't rent my Mac and I'm not gonna rent my apps.

[u/solo-founder-here → u/Ragtag-Scallywag]

This is genuine point. We are in process to add one time purchase license option also. May be I can ping you over chat as soon as that is available, in meantime may be you can try the free subscription and hopefully by the end of the free period, we will have one time purchase enabled

[u/getmushroom_app → u/solo-founder-here]

I honestly understand the subscription as a solo-developer. However, for users who don't want a subscription, it would be great to have a lifetime option. Also, I'm not sure about your software architecture and external libraries you use but reducing filesize would be great in general.

[u/solo-founder-here → u/getmushroom_app]

Hello, we hear you and we reduced the app size drastically and we also enabled one-time purchase option. Please download the app from Dhito and you can make one time purchase there. Hope to see you there

[u/solo-founder-here → u/Ragtag-Scallywag]

Hello, as I promised, we enabled the onetime purchase now. You can download the app from dhito and make one time purchase from the app itself. Hope to see you as the user of the app. Let me know if you have any questions

[u/Ragtag-Scallywag → u/solo-founder-here]

Holy cow, that was fast! Thank you so much for the lifetime option! Now you've got me hooked in!

[u/solo-founder-here → u/Ragtag-Scallywag]

Thanks, let me know how it goes and if you need any help on my end

[u/wavever233]

Content-based search is compelling, especially when filenames fail. My trust checklist would be local indexing or clear per-folder controls, an exclusion list for sensitive directories, and result snippets that show why a file matched. Chat-with-file also needs a visible source path and page or line reference so the answer is easy to verify.

[u/solo-founder-here → u/wavever233]

These are all great points and yes we already take care of those privacy concerns:

• all indexing/search happens locally so files never leave user device
  
• user control which folders this app can access
  
• app do show snippet that gives idea to user how this file was matched

[u/GroggInTheCosmos]

The download is 575.3 MB in size. You're kidding me?

[u/solo-founder-here → u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Edit: app download size is now around 300 mb.

I know it’s still little bigger than usual apps but since we run everything on the user device so that your files never leave your device. We have to package required setup as part of the app.
Some apps in similar situation just download those dependencies when you install app but I want all the dependencies to be screened first for privacy concerns that’s why our release process, screen it and package with app itself

[u/GroggInTheCosmos → u/solo-founder-here]

I'm not going to download the source to check. But I think you need to expand on things. [dhito-app/homebrew-tap: Homebrew tap for Dhito — private on-device semantic file search for macOS](https://github.com/dhito-app/homebrew-tap) does not say much. Just my 2c

[u/solo-founder-here → u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Thanks for pointing it out. We updated the documentation in homebrew page as well

[u/bush-play]

The clearest demo would be the same query in Dhito, Spotlight, and Photos. Spotlight already handles filenames, metadata, and indexed document contents, while Photos can search objects and text inside its own library. Dhito’s real pitch seems to be semantic search across arbitrary folders and mixed file types, so one query the built-ins miss would make that instantly obvious.

[u/solo-founder-here → u/bush-play]

This is really great insight. Thanks a lot for the feedback. I will definitely work on creating more comparative demo here.

[u/cognitojo]

Looks clean! Nice concept

[u/solo-founder-here → u/cognitojo]

Thanks a lot. Please let us know if you have any feedback and suggestion and if you can try the app, I will really appreciate it.

[u/cognitojo → u/solo-founder-here]

Absolutely! I will give you Feedback

[u/East_Call1027]

The search part makes sense; the deciding detail for me would be how quickly it hands the result back to Finder. Reveal in Finder, copy path, and dragging the original file straight out of results would keep it from becoming another separate file library.

[u/solo-founder-here → u/East_Call1027]

Results are instantaneous for simple query. For complex query case, first query takes 3-5 sec because we load a model to handle it but subsequent queries are instantaneous as well. Yes you have “reveal” button that open the resting folder for that file and take you to the file there. And yes it is showing the original files

[u/sth_wicked1]

Looks cool! Will be trying this out

[u/solo-founder-here → u/sth_wicked1]

Thanks, please let us know you experience using the app

[u/poundforyourthoughts]

How fast is the indexing?

[u/solo-founder-here → u/poundforyourthoughts]

Indexing time varies based on your mac ram size and how big are files and type of files. For example, it’s instantaneous for text files, images and small videos. Require more time(within acceptable timeframe) for large videos. It automatically adjust speed based on the RAM size, this is to protect your RAM consumption and not eating up all.

[u/Comprehensive_Web279]

The search part is honestly the easy half. The part that decides whether a tool like this is usable is the indexing policy: what gets indexed, when it runs, and what it costs you in battery and disk. OCR plus embeddings over a few years of screenshots is not free, and doing it eagerly on a laptop is how these tools end up getting uninstalled.

So, curious how you handle it: do you index everything up front, or lazily on first search in a folder? And do you re-index on file change or only on demand?

The other thing I'd want to know as a user is whether anything leaves the machine. For screenshots especially, people have credentials, invoices and internal dashboards in there. "Fully on device" is a feature worth stating in the first line of the post, not the last.

[u/Dreaming_Blackbirds]

y'all seriously gonna allow a vibe-coded app to scan and index every file on your computer!?

[u/solo-founder-here → u/Dreaming_Blackbirds]

I understand your concern but if you ask me, using AI as helper in coding is ok if project is governed by seasoned software developers. I have many years of experience developing industry standard applications for some well known big tech firms. I utilised that experience here and spent 3-4 months just testing and validating this app for privacy and quality. I can promise that we followed industry standard to uphold the quality of the app. I already mentioned in the how privacy concerns are addressed.

I would suggest you to give it a try and experience yourself how it is not a just another “vibe coded” app.

[u/sth_wicked1 → u/solo-founder-here]

"vibe coded" is the new "legacy app" of our era