In the folders you choose, DigUp reads pictures and screenshots, PDFs, text documents, audio and video, plus code once you turn on code search. Spreadsheets, slide decks, Apple iWork files and EPUB books are not read. Some formats and text recognition features depend on whether you use a Mac or the Windows and Linux beta.
Supported formats by system
| Kind | Formats and limits in the README | Mac | Windows and Linux beta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pictures and screenshots | JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP and more, matched by what they show |
Reads what they show and text inside screenshots | Reads what they show; screenshot text is not read yet in v0.7.0-beta.1 |
| PDFs | Page by page, scans included. First 30 pages right away, the rest later, up to 5,000 pages a file | Visual and text match; v0.6.1 reads scanned pages with text recognition (issue #32) | Page by page, scans included |
| Documents | txt, md, rtf, docx, odt, html, and doc on a Mac. Long ones read like PDFs. Text that is mostly numbers, like a data export, is matched by exact text only |
Includes old Word doc files |
txt, md, rtf, docx, odt, html; old Word doc files are skipped |
| Audio | Any length: overlapping 30-second windows, a match points to its moment | Supported | Supported |
| Video | Any length: a frame every few seconds, one per shot, plus the soundtrack like audio | Supported | Supported |
| RAW photos and SVG pictures | Diagram, logo and camera RAW files | Supported (SVG is read since v0.6.1) |
Skipped in v0.7.0-beta.1 |
| Code | Only with code search turned on: source files, notebooks without their outputs, and a repo’s own docs | Supported | Supported |
What DigUp does not read
In issue #4 (closed 2026-10-12), the maintainer stated that Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Excel, PowerPoint and EPUB are not read yet. A user opened a feature request in issue #75 (open as of 2026-10-16) to read .xlsx, .pptx, .ods and .odp, noting that .xlsx, .xls, .pptx, .ods and .odp files are skipped in v0.7.0-beta.1.
Outside the folders you pick for code search, DigUp never reads code, and inside a code project (a folder with .git, package.json and the like) it reads only screenshots. It never reads keys, certificates, password files, hidden folders like .ssh, apps or caches. It skips folders that look like datasets, and never downloads files that only live in the cloud (iCloud on a Mac, OneDrive on Windows). You can skip more folders or file types in Settings. See which folders to index and zero files indexed troubleshooting if expected files are missing.
How results open
Pressing ↩ on a Mac or Enter on Windows and Linux opens a result at the matched spot:
- Mac: Videos open at the moment in QuickTime Player or IINA, and PDFs open in Preview with your words in its search.
- Windows and Linux: PDFs open at the page in Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Acrobat, SumatraPDF, Evince or Okular. Recordings and videos open at the moment in VLC, mpv or MPC-HC.
- Other apps and preview: Other apps open the file from the start, while pressing
Spaceshows a big preview at the page or moment. For query examples, see search tips.