Remote & Sync

What This Replaces#

If you push files to a remote server, you've probably been using Transmit ($45), Cyberduck, or some combination of scp commands and FTP scripts. Each of those tools does one thing well, but none of them also happens to be your file manager — so you're always switching apps, copy-pasting paths, and re-typing passwords.

Seiz folds remote servers into the same window you already use for local files. Connect a server in the sidebar, browse it like any other folder, drag files between local and remote panes, and (optionally) set up sync rules that keep folders mirrored automatically. It replaces Transmit for most developer and creative workflows.

What You Can Connect To#

• SFTP — secure file transfer over SSH. Password or SSH-key auth (ed25519, RSA, ECDSA). The most common way to get files to and from a Linux server.
• FTP / FTPS — classic file transfer, with optional TLS. Older but still widely supported.
• WebDAV — used by Nextcloud, ownCloud, Box, and many corporate file shares. HTTP-based.
• SMB — the standard for Windows shares and most NAS devices (Synology, QNAP).
• S3 — Amazon S3 and any S3-compatible service (Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, MinIO, DigitalOcean Spaces). Region and custom endpoint supported.

Adding a Connection#

In the sidebar, find the Servers section and click the + button. The connection dialog asks for the basics: protocol, host, port, username, and either a password or path to an SSH key. The form changes based on the protocol — S3 asks for access key and bucket; SMB asks for the share name; SFTP asks whether you want password or key auth.

Click Test Connection before saving. Seiz connects, lists the root directory, disconnects, and shows you the round-trip time. If anything's wrong (wrong host, wrong password, server down) you find out in two seconds, not in two minutes of staring at a hung file browser.

Passwords are stored in the macOS Keychain, never in plain text. SSH keys stay where they live on disk — Seiz just reads them when needed.

Browsing a Remote Server#

Click the server in the sidebar. Seiz connects and shows the remote directory in your active pane, exactly like a local folder — same selection, same breadcrumbs, same history (back/forward), same keyboard shortcuts. The status bar at the bottom shows which server you're on so you never get confused about whether you're looking at local or remote.

Behind the scenes, directory listings are cached for 30 seconds — so navigating up and down a tree feels instant rather than waiting on the network every time. When you do something that changes the remote (upload, delete, rename), the cache for that folder is invalidated immediately so you see fresh results.

Previewing files#

Press Space (or use Quick Look) on a remote file and Seiz downloads just that file in the background, then previews it the same way it would a local one. Previewed files are cached so reopening the same file is instant. The cache is capped at 500 MB per server and cleaned up automatically when you disconnect.

Moving Files Around#

Open two panes (see Multi-Pane Layouts) — local on one side, remote on the other. Drag files from one to the other to upload or download. Cut/copy/paste also works across panes, including remote-to-remote copies (Seiz handles the temp-file dance for you).

Transfers run in the background and show up in the operations queue at the bottom of the window. You can cancel any transfer mid-flight, retry failed ones, and see the bytes transferred plus an estimated time remaining.

When Things Go Wrong#

Networks die. Wi-Fi drops. Servers get rebooted at the worst moment. Seiz handles this gracefully:

• Auto-reconnect — if a connection drops, Seiz tries to reconnect three times with increasing delays (1s, 2s, 4s) before giving up. You usually don't notice anything happened.
• Network-aware — when your Mac comes back online after losing Wi-Fi, every errored connection retries automatically.
• Failed transfers can be retried from the operations queue with one click — no need to start over.

Sync Rules: Keeping Folders in Sync#

Sync rules are the “set it and forget it” layer on top of remote browsing. You define a local folder, a remote folder, and a direction — and Seiz keeps them matched automatically.

Three sync directions#

• Local → Remote — push changes from your Mac up to the server. Useful for deploying a website or backing up to a NAS.
• Remote → Local — pull changes from the server down. Useful when a server is the source of truth (e.g. a colleague's shared folder).
• Bidirectional — keep both sides matched, propagating changes either way. Useful for keeping a project folder in sync between your Mac and a NAS you also access from another machine.

When to sync#

Three options: Manual (you click Sync Now when you want to), On a schedule (every N minutes/hours), or When files change (Seiz watches the local folder and syncs as soon as you edit something).

Conflict resolution#

For bidirectional rules, sometimes both sides change the same file. You pick how Seiz should handle these conflicts: Ask me (a dialog appears showing both versions side by side), Keep local, Keep remote, Keep newest, or Keep both (renames the older one). Scheduled syncs auto-skip conflicts so they never block in the middle of the night — you resolve them next time you're at the Mac.

Excluding files#

Every rule has an exclude list — file patterns that should never be synced. Seiz pre-populates it with sensible defaults (.DS_Store, .git, node_modules) and you can add anything else (*.log, build/, whatever you don't want polluting the other side).

Sync That Keeps Running After You Quit Seiz#

By default, sync rules run while Seiz is open. If you want them to keep running even when Seiz is quit, enable the background sync agent in Settings — Seiz installs a tiny macOS launch agent that handles syncing on its own. Disabling it cleanly removes the agent, no system clutter left behind.

Bandwidth limits are respected (set in Settings — useful if you don't want a big sync to crowd out everything else on your Wi-Fi), and every sync writes a log entry you can inspect in the Sync Log view.

Next Steps#

• Multi-Pane Layouts — essential when working with remote servers; one pane local, one remote, drag between them.
• Command Bar — jump to a specific server or trigger a sync without touching the mouse.
• SmartFolder — clean up local space before syncing it to a remote.