Filters Reference

NeatCLI provides powerful filtering options to select exactly which files to process.

Name Filters

Filter files based on their filename.

--startswith

Match files whose name starts with a string:

neatcli organize ~/Photos --startswith "IMG_" --execute

Matches: IMG_0001.jpg, IMG_vacation.png
Doesn't match: photo.jpg, my_IMG_file.jpg

--endswith

Match files whose name ends with a string (before extension):

neatcli organize ~/Downloads --endswith "_backup" --execute

Matches: file_backup.zip, data_backup.sql
Doesn't match: backup.zip, backup_file.zip

--contains

Match files whose name contains a string:

neatcli organize ~/Documents --contains "2024" --execute

Matches: report_2024.pdf, 2024_budget.xlsx, tax_2024_final.doc

Regex Filter

--regex

Use regular expressions for advanced matching:

# Files starting with IMG_ followed by 4 digits
neatcli organize ~/Photos --regex "^IMG_\d{4}" --execute

# Files with dates in format YYYY-MM-DD
neatcli organize ~/Downloads --regex "\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}" --execute

Regex Syntax

NeatCLI uses Rust regex syntax, which is similar to Perl/PCRE.

Common patterns:

Pattern	Matches
`^IMG_`	Starts with "IMG_"
`\.pdf$`	Ends with ".pdf"
`\d{4}`	4 digits
`[A-Z]+`	One or more uppercase letters
`.backup.`	Contains "backup" anywhere

MIME Type Filter

--mime

Filter by file type using MIME types:

# All images
neatcli organize ~/Downloads --mime "image/*" --execute

# Only JPEG images
neatcli organize ~/Downloads --mime "image/jpeg" --execute

# Only PDFs
neatcli organize ~/Downloads --mime "application/pdf" --execute

Common MIME types:

MIME Type	Files
`image/*`	All images
`image/jpeg`	JPEG only
`image/png`	PNG only
`video/*`	All videos
`audio/*`	All audio
`application/pdf`	PDF documents
`application/zip`	ZIP archives
`text/*`	All text files
`text/plain`	Plain text

Combining Filters

All filters can be combined. Files must match all specified filters:

# JPEG images larger than 5MB from 2024
neatcli organize ~/Photos \
  --mime "image/jpeg" \
  --min-size 5MB \
  --after 2024-01-01 \
  --execute

# Files starting with "IMG_" that contain "vacation"
neatcli organize ~/Photos \
  --startswith "IMG_" \
  --contains "vacation" \
  --execute