Substage

Substage adds a bar to Finder where you type plain English instead of shell syntax. Ask it to merge PDFs, convert a video, or rename a folder of files, and it builds the command for you. The point is to keep your hands on the files you're working with, not to send you off to a separate terminal app.

The app knows which files and folders you have selected and uses that selection as the target of your request. You don't have to type paths or drag anything into a window. Select the right files, describe the job, and the operation applies to exactly what you picked.

Before anything runs, Substage simulates the command and shows what it would create, change, move or delete. If the result looks off, the app asks for confirmation instead of proceeding. A risk slider and command rating give you a quick read on how much damage a misstep could do, so a risky request is visible before it's real.

You can rely on the built-in cloud models, which the app lists as fast options tuned for command generation, or connect your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Mistral. For stricter privacy, point it at a local model through Ollama or LM Studio. That choice is per user rather than fixed, so you can trade speed for locality as you like.

For the chores you run constantly, like converting to JPG or archiving as ZIP, Instant Actions bind a request to a shortcut. Those shortcuts run immediately and skip the AI step, so a common conversion costs no tokens and no waiting. It's the fast lane for the handful of jobs you repeat every week.

You can teach Substage a repeatable workflow as a rule. Save something like a YouTube export with your preferred video settings once, then trigger it later by typing a short phrase. Rules capture the exact steps and options, which keeps output consistent across runs and teams.

Substage keeps a history of what you've run, so repeating a previous operation is a keypress away rather than a retyped request. The up-arrow shortcut brings back your last action, which turns a fiddly command you figured out once into a habit you can reuse.