Finder Integration

Right-click a folder in Finder and choose Open in Iruka — the folder opens as a tab in Iruka, launching the app first if it isn't running.

macOS requires you to switch this on once, because it is a Finder extension and Apple makes every one of those opt-in. It takes about ten seconds.

Turning it on

1. Open System Settings
2. Go to General → Login Items & Extensions
3. Scroll to Finder Extensions and tick Iruka

Iruka can take you straight there: Settings → General → Finder Integration shows whether the extension is currently on, with a button that opens the right pane of System Settings.

If Iruka isn't listed at all, open the app once from your Applications folder and look again — macOS registers the extension when it first sees the app, and it has to be installed in /Applications rather than run from a download folder or a disk image.

Using it

• Right-click a folder → Open in Iruka opens that folder.
• Right-click empty space inside a folder you're viewing → opens the folder you're in, no selection needed.
• Select several folders → each opens in its own tab.
• Right-click a file → opens the folder that file lives in. Iruka is a file manager, so it takes you to where the thing is rather than trying to open the document itself.

As a toolbar button

The same command can sit in Finder's toolbar:

1. Right-click Finder's toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar…
2. Drag the Iruka item up into the toolbar
3. Click Done

Clicking it opens whatever folder that Finder window is showing.

Other ways a folder reaches Iruka

The Finder extension is the convenient route, but not the only one:

• Services menu — the same Open in Iruka item also appears under the Services submenu of Finder's right-click menu. Its advantage is that you can give it a keyboard shortcut, under System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services, and then open a folder in Iruka without touching the mouse.
• Terminal — open -a Iruka some-folder
• Links and scripts — an iruka:// URL such as iruka:///Users/you/Documents opens that folder. iruka://open?path=/Users/you/Documents does the same and survives being pasted somewhere that mangles slashes.
• The Dock — drop a folder onto Iruka's Dock icon.

What macOS does not allow

Double-clicking a folder in Finder still opens Finder, and there is no setting anywhere that changes it. Finder navigates its own folders internally and never asks the system which app should handle them, so no file manager on macOS can take that over — this is not a limitation specific to Iruka. Folders also can't be reassigned to a different app the way documents can: macOS refuses the request outright, even when asked to set the handler to the one it already uses.

The right-click item is the supported way in, which is why Iruka offers it in both Finder's own menu and the Services submenu.

Turning it off

Untick Iruka under General → Login Items & Extensions → Finder Extensions. The menu item disappears and nothing else about Iruka changes. Removing the app removes the extension with it.