spacebarA QLStephen Alternative
Press Space on README, LICENSE or a Makefile and read it, on macOS 15 Sequoia and later
QLStephen (opens in a new tab) let Quick Look show text files with no extension, such as README, INSTALL and CHANGELOG. It is a .qlgenerator plugin, and macOS 15 Sequoia stopped loading those. spacebar is a free, open-source Quick Look extension that takes Space for files with no extension again.
Why QLStephen Stopped Working
QLStephen installs into ~/Library/QuickLook, the folder for the old plugin format. Apple replaced that format with app extensions, and the macOS Sequoia 15 release notes say: “Support for deprecated Quick Look Generator plugins is being removed.” A plugin that worked on Sonoma does nothing now, and no reset brings it back.
QLStephen’s latest release is 1.5.1, from 5 February 2020. An open issue from 16 October 2025 asks for it to be rebuilt as an app extension. Checked on GitHub on 4 October 2026. More in Quick Look plugins on Sequoia.
Space On README, LICENSE And Makefile
With spacebar installed, Space in Finder opens spacebar for files with no extension. No helper and no Accessibility needed.
| File | Shown as |
|---|---|
README, LICENSE, CHANGELOG | As is, with line numbers |
Dotfiles such as .gitignore and .env | As is, with line numbers |
Makefile and Dockerfile | Highlighted, with line numbers |
Logs (.log) | As is, with line numbers |
The folder sits in a sidebar beside the file, so the arrow keys move on to the next one. ⌘F finds in the file, and Copy takes all of its text. See every file type for the full list.
Logs And Encodings
- Text over 2 MB shows its first 2 MB. A log over 2 MB shows its newest 2 MB instead, with errors and warnings tinted.
- Text that isn’t UTF-8, such as UTF-16 or a legacy encoding, is detected and kept.
- Plain
.txtfiles stay with Apple’s Quick Look on Space. Pick one in spacebar’s sidebar, or turn on the optional Space helper, which needs Accessibility.
Syntax Highlight Is The Other Option
Syntax Highlight (opens in a new tab), by sbarex, is a free, open-source code previewer that also takes files with no extension. Its README says it reads them with /usr/bin/file to find their type and encoding, tries highlighting for text, and can show a hex dump of a binary file. You can set rules by file name or type. It runs on macOS 12 and later, and its latest release is 2.1.32, from 16 September 2026. See Syntax Highlight and spacebar.
Quick Look uses one previewer per file type, so keep one of them on for files with no extension. Switch them in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look (on macOS 13 and 14, System Settings › Privacy & Security › Extensions › Quick Look).
Questions
Why does Space show nothing on README?
A file with no extension has no type macOS knows, often just public.data, so Apple’s Quick Look has no previewer for it and shows the icon. QLStephen used to fill that gap, but macOS 15 no longer loads it. spacebar takes Space for files with no extension and shows them as text, with line numbers.
Does QLStephen work on macOS Sequoia?
No. It is a .qlgenerator plugin, and macOS 15 stopped loading those. An open issue asks for it to be rebuilt as an app extension.
Is QLStephen still updated?
Its latest release is 1.5.1, from 5 February 2020, as of 4 October 2026.
Install It
Or paste this in Terminal
curl -fsSL https://spacebar.patebryant.com/install.sh | sh
The script downloads the latest notarized release from GitHub, checks its SHA-256 and installs to ~/Applications, no sudo. Read the script.
Sources
Checked on 4 October 2026:
- QLStephen: README (opens in a new tab), its releases (opens in a new tab) and issue 143 (opens in a new tab)
- Apple: macOS Sequoia 15 Release Notes, Quick Look (opens in a new tab)
- Syntax Highlight: README (opens in a new tab) and release 2.1.32 (opens in a new tab)
- spacebar: README (opens in a new tab) and the changelog