macOS Finder Tag Automations

Overview

As of Sortio v8.11.0, the Automations engine can both read macOS Finder tags as a condition and write them as an action. That means you can build deterministic rules like "if Finder tag is Receipt, move to ~/Documents/Receipts" or "if file size is greater than 10 MB, add Finder tag Large in red."

Finder tags are a native macOS feature, so this entire flow is macOS only. On Windows and Linux these conditions and actions are not available.

Match on tags

Pick the Finder tag field in any condition. Use comparators like is, is any of, or has any tag to gate a rule on what's already tagged.

Apply tags as an action

The TAG action takes a list of tag names, an optional Finder color, and a mode (Add, Remove, or Replace).

Finder Tag Conditions

When you build a condition in the Rule Builder, choose Finder tag from the field dropdown. Sortio reads the file's existing tags from macOS and compares them against the value or list you provide.

Available comparators

is	File has exactly this tag
is not	File does not have this tag
contains	A tag on the file contains this substring (case-insensitive)
is any of	File has at least one tag from a comma-separated list
is none of	File has none of the tags in the provided list
has any tag	File has at least one tag of any kind
has no tags	File has no tags at all

Combine with other fields

Tag conditions are first-class, so you can mix them freely with name, extension, size, dates, and anything else the Rule Builder supports. For example: extension is pdf AND Finder tag is any of [Receipt, Invoice].

The TAG Action

Add a TAG action to any rule when you want to write tags onto matching files. The action has three inputs: the list of tags, an optional Finder color, and a mode.

Color (optional)

Pick a Finder color. The color applies to the tags being written by this action.

Gray Green Purple Blue Yellow Red Orange

Mode

Add: append the listed tags to whatever the file already has. Existing tags are preserved.
Remove: drop the listed tags from the file. Tags not in the list are untouched.
Replace: overwrite the file's entire tag set with exactly the tags in the list.

ℹ️ Replace is destructive

Replace mode wipes any tag not present in your action's tag list. If you only want to add, leave the mode on Add (the default).

Example: Route Receipts by Tag

A common workflow is to tag receipts in Finder as you save them, then let Sortio file them automatically. This rule watches for any file tagged "Receipt" and moves it to a year-based folder under your Documents directory.

Receipt routing rule


Conditions: ALL OF

  - Finder tag is "Receipt"


Actions:

  1. MOVE → ~/Documents/Receipts/{file_year}

To go further, pair this with a TAG action that adds a "Filed" tag in green so you can see at a glance which receipts Sortio has already routed.

Receipt routing + visual confirmation


Conditions: ALL OF

  - Finder tag is "Receipt"


Actions:

  1. MOVE → ~/Documents/Receipts/{file_year}

  2. TAG → ["Filed"], color: Green, mode: Add

Example: Flag Large Files in Red

Tags are also useful as visual flags. This rule adds a red "Large" tag to any file over 10 MB so they stand out when you're cleaning out a Downloads folder.

Flag large files


Conditions: ALL OF

  - size GT 10485760 (10 MB)

  - Finder tag is none of ["Large"]


Actions:

  1. TAG → ["Large"], color: Red, mode: Add

The is none of guard prevents the rule from re-running on files that are already tagged Large. If you're using "Stop on match" semantics in your rule list, that gate is optional.

Tips & Caveats

macOS only

Finder tags are a macOS feature. On Windows or Linux, the Finder tag condition and the TAG action are not exposed.

Tag names are case-sensitive in macOS, lookup is forgiving

macOS treats "Receipt" and "receipt" as separate tags, but Sortio's contains comparator matches case-insensitively. Use is when you need an exact match and contains when you don't.

Combine with Spaces auto-tag

If you want tags applied and then routed by rule, use Auto-tag in Spaces to populate the tags, and Finder-tag-aware Automations to act on them.

Dry-run first

Tagging is fast and reversible, but writing tags to a wide condition can produce noisy results. Always preview a new rule with dry-run before enabling it.

On This Page