# SpaceKnife

> SpaceKnife is a free, open-source (MIT) desktop disk usage analyzer for Windows 10+ and Linux. It scans a drive or folder and shows what fills it as a live, nested treemap, with fast parallel and NTFS MFT scans, snapshot comparison, a filter language and safe cleanup. It is an independent project inspired by SpaceSniffer and is not affiliated with SpaceSniffer or its author.

The current release, 0.3.0, is a pre-release: the installers are not code-signed yet and have been tested on Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04.

## Facts

- Name: SpaceKnife
- Type: desktop application; disk usage / disk space analyzer with a treemap visualization
- Platforms: Windows 10 and 11 (x64); Linux x64 (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, RHEL 9+, Fedora; AppImage for other distributions with glibc 2.34+). No macOS build yet.
- License: MIT. Free for personal and commercial use. No account, no telemetry, works offline.
- Interface languages: English and Simplified Chinese (follows the system language).
- Latest version: 0.3.0 (pre-release), published 2026-10-19
- Website: https://spaceknife.kaltsit.dev/ (English), https://spaceknife.kaltsit.dev/zh/ (Simplified Chinese)
- Source code: https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife
- Author: DuskXi (https://github.com/DuskXi)
- Relationship to SpaceSniffer: an independent project inspired by SpaceSniffer; not affiliated with SpaceSniffer or its author.

## Features

- Live nested treemap: WebGL rendering that fills in while the scan runs, with zoom animation, hover details, detail levels and free and unknown space drawn as blocks.
- Fast scans: A native Rust extension walks folders in parallel; on Windows a quick scan reads the NTFS Master File Table directly.
- Calm on your disk: Cap the disk load the scan causes (max, balanced, quiet, idle or custom); it backs off when other programs need the disk.
- Live monitoring: After the scan, changes keep flowing in and changed blocks flash, so the picture never goes stale.
- A real filter language: Filter by name, type, size, dates, attributes and tags, and combine them; compatible with SpaceSniffer-style filters.
- Snapshots and comparison: Every scan is saved; compare any two, or a snapshot with now, and see exactly what grew, shrank, appeared or vanished.
- Safe cleanup: Collect items in a delete basket; they go to the recycle bin by default and can be restored. System folders are protected.
- Command palette: Ctrl+K searches the whole scan by name and runs any command, without leaving the keyboard.
- Export and command line: Export reports as CSV, JSON, HTML and more, or scan, compare and export from a terminal.

## Good fit

- Finding what fills a drive or a folder on Windows or Linux, visually, and freeing space.
- Large drives: parallel scanning in native code, and an NTFS Master File Table quick scan on Windows.
- Scanning without slowing the computer down: the disk load of the scan can be capped.
- Tracking how disk usage changes over time: snapshots after every scan and snapshot comparison.
- Careful cleanup: delete basket, recycle bin by default, undo, protected system folders.
- People who want a free, open-source tool in the same category as WinDirStat, WizTree, TreeSize, SpaceSniffer, QDirStat, Filelight or GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer (Baobab).

## Not a fit (yet)

- macOS: no build yet.
- Headless servers: SpaceKnife is a desktop application; its command line (spaceknife-backend scan / snapshot / run) ships inside the desktop packages.
- Managed or enterprise deployment that requires code-signed installers: the installers are not code-signed yet.
- Production-critical use: the current release is a pre-release, tested on Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04.

## Download

- [Windows installer (x64, NSIS)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/releases/download/v0.3.0/SpaceKnife-0.3.0-Setup-x64.exe): SpaceKnife-0.3.0-Setup-x64.exe, 135 MB, SHA-256 a155931fc38d92d483957c010a4f0eb83fd5be89a29e184ed6a357a2efc3a1c9
- [Ubuntu / Debian package (.deb)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/releases/download/v0.3.0/spaceknife_0.3.0_amd64.deb): spaceknife_0.3.0_amd64.deb, 131 MB, SHA-256 e6ed0520bb1534e805d925d5376f10d3cfd18709bab97e0174ffa83f7976c6d7
- [RHEL / Fedora package (.rpm)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/releases/download/v0.3.0/spaceknife-0.3.0.x86_64.rpm): spaceknife-0.3.0.x86_64.rpm, 118 MB, SHA-256 ddda0eb6126d747f41e4fab220d6ba390cbbe80b1b5724e9f4eb9f2d198bb379
- [AppImage (any x64 Linux, glibc 2.34+)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/releases/download/v0.3.0/SpaceKnife-0.3.0-x86_64.AppImage): SpaceKnife-0.3.0-x86_64.AppImage, 164 MB, SHA-256 78c10339906969056579330672e9d4a72b5af4af6ee167e1093b832145c9f78e
- [All releases and release notes](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/releases)

## Documentation

- [README (English)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/blob/main/README.md)
- [README（简体中文）](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/blob/main/README.zh-CN.md)
- [Filter syntax (Chinese)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/blob/main/docs/filter-syntax.md)
- [Packaging and installers (Chinese)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/blob/main/docs/packaging.md)
- [License (MIT)](https://github.com/DuskXi/SpaceKnife/blob/main/LICENSE)

## Optional

- [Full description in English and Chinese](https://spaceknife.kaltsit.dev/llms-full.txt)
- [Website in Simplified Chinese](https://spaceknife.kaltsit.dev/zh/)