CodeLook

CodeLook is a Quick Look extension for macOS that lets you preview code files instantly, right where you already work. Its main purpose is to bring beautiful, accurate, and fast code previews to the macOS Quick Look system, replacing the plain-text view you normally get when pressing Space on a code file. The product is aimed at developers and anyone who regularly works with source code and wants to see a file's contents highlighted in a familiar editor theme without opening an editor. CodeLook is designed to feel native to macOS, working as a system extension rather than an app you have to keep open. Before CodeLook, previewing code files on macOS via Quick Look typically displayed a bare, unstyled text dump that ignored colors, fonts, and line structure. For developers who live in themed editors like VSCode, Neovim, or Zed, that jarring plain-text view interrupts the flow of browsing files in Finder, Spotlight, or open dialogs. CodeLook addresses this problem by bringing the same kind of themed, syntax-highlighted rendering you expect from a modern code editor into Quick Look itself. Its fully native engine and Tree-sitter grammars mean the preview is not only visually consistent with editors, but also accurately parsed rather than guessed at. The first major feature is deep theming. Every color in the preview comes from the selected theme, including the background, gutter, line numbers, and separator, not just the text colors, so previews look just like your text editor. CodeLook ships with over 700 themes from Zed's public extension registry, and they are installable in one click. You can also make your own theme using Zed's theme builder or by writing a simplified JSON file with documented token mappings. Optional line number and wrap settings give you control over how each file is displayed. A second feature area is appearance modes. CodeLook supports choosing a dark and a light theme, and with System mode it auto-switches between them based on your macOS appearance. That means your previews can follow your system's light or dark setting automatically, always looking appropriate for the current environment. This is a small but polished touch that makes the extension feel deeply integrated with macOS. Font handling is another key capability. You can pick any font on your Mac and customize the size, and CodeLook automatically renders regular, bold, italic, and bold italic text. This lets you view code in the typeface you already use in your editor, making the quick preview even more familiar and readable. The font picker and size controls are available in a dedicated Font tab within the settings app. Performance is a central concern, especially for large files. CodeLook claims to instantly highlight code the second you press Space, with no file size left behind. It is powered by Tree-sitter and a fully native engine written in Swift, and the rendering is streamed, so really large files open just as fast; the screenshot on the site shows a 260,000-line C file fully highlighted at line 260,494. Because the engine is native and streaming, previews appear and are already highlighted, so you can jump into a big file without waiting. Accuracy is handled by parsing, not pattern matching. Every language is parsed with the same Tree-sitter grammars used behind Zed and Neovim, and every token is colored by what it actually is, not what it looks like. This ensures that tricky syntax such as Swift regex literals is highlighted correctly. Seventeen file types are supported, each with a dedicated grammar, including Rust, C, C++, Swift, Go, Ruby, Python, CSS, JavaScript, JSX, TSX, Shell, Lua, JSON, JSONC, JSONL, and YAML. CodeLook is structured as a system extension on macOS. After installing, you launch the CodeLook app once to enable the extension, and then previews just work throughout the system. You can quit the app, and the Quick Look extension continues functioning. It works anywhere macOS shows file previews via Quick Look, such as Finder, Spotlight, and Open and Save dialogs, as well as in any third-party app that uses the Quick Look framework, including Raycast. Because it is a system extension, toggling it on or off is done in System Settings under Login Items & Extensions then Quick Look. Privacy is a strong and explicit part of the product. CodeLook does not collect any data, has no analytics, no tracking, and no accounts. Files are read locally to render the preview and never leave your Mac, and the only network requests are the theme catalog and theme downloads you ask for. The full privacy policy fits on one page on the official website. CodeLook is available on the Mac App Store for a one-time price of $4.99, with no subscription and no in-app purchase. The product's name and messaging emphasize that you buy it once and own the app forever. It targets macOS users who work with code and want a better Quick Look experience, including developers using editors like Zed and Neovim or browsing code in Finder and other apps.