# Ziplark

> Ziplark is a free, open-source, cross-platform file archiver for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It extracts ZIP, RAR (including RAR5 and encrypted archives), 7z, tar, and the compressed-tar and single-stream variants (gz, bz2, xz, zst, lz4), and the ISO 9660 / Joliet disc-image format, and it creates ZIP (with AES-256 encryption), 7z, and tar archives. A single ~1.4 MB Rust engine powers three interfaces: a desktop app, a command-line tool (`ziplark`), and an MCP server (`ziplark-mcp`).

Ziplark is built and maintained by doaipm (one independent developer). It is free forever, MIT licensed, contains no ads and no telemetry, and the desktop app uses the operating system's native webview rather than a bundled browser engine, which keeps it small.

## Key facts

- Name: Ziplark
- Website: https://ziplark.com
- Source code: https://github.com/zhitongblog/ziplark
- License: MIT (free and open source)
- Price: Free (no paid tier, no ads, no telemetry)
- Platforms: macOS (universal — Apple Silicon + Intel — notarized), Windows (x64), Linux (x64; .deb and AppImage)
- Size: about 1.4 MB for the engine + CLI
- Language/stack: Rust engine; Tauri 2 desktop app using the OS webview
- Latest version: 0.1.0

## Supported formats

- ZIP — extract and create; AES-256 encryption on create, reads legacy ZipCrypto
- 7z — extract and create; AES-256 encryption
- RAR / RAR5 — extract only (including encrypted archives); creation is intentionally not supported because the RAR compression format is proprietary
- tar — extract and create
- tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz, tar.zst, tar.lz4 — extract and create
- gz, bz2, xz, zst, lz4 (single-stream) — extract and create
- ISO 9660 / Joliet — extract only (disc images); read with a dependency-free parser, no FUSE

## How to use it

- Desktop app: drag an archive onto the window to inspect and extract it, or switch to Create to build an archive with an optional password.
- CLI (`ziplark`): `ziplark extract photos.zip -o ./out`, `ziplark create backup.tar.zst ./src --level best`, `ziplark list movie.rar`, `ziplark test download.7z`. Every command supports `--json`.
- Right-click integration: `ziplark shell-integration install` adds "Extract here with Ziplark" and "Compress to ZIP with Ziplark" to Finder (macOS), Explorer (Windows), and KDE/Nautilus (Linux).
- MCP server (`ziplark-mcp`): exposes the archive engine to any LLM over the Model Context Protocol; read tools are always available and write tools require `--allow-write`.

## Why it is notable

- Cross-platform: the same engine and behavior on macOS, Windows, and Linux, unlike platform-specific tools such as WinRAR, 7-Zip (Windows-only GUI), or The Unarchiver (macOS-only).
- Small and fast: size-optimized Rust build, no bundled Chromium.
- Safe: every extraction path passes through a single zip-slip / path-traversal guard, so no archive entry can escape the destination folder.
- Scriptable and automatable: ships a CLI and an MCP server as first-class, documented artifacts.

## Common questions

- Is Ziplark free? Yes — free and open source under MIT, with no ads and no telemetry.
- Can Ziplark open RAR files? Yes — it extracts RAR and RAR5, including password-protected ones. It does not create RAR archives (the format is proprietary).
- Does it work on macOS, Windows, and Linux? Yes, on all three.
- Is it a good free alternative to WinRAR, 7-Zip, or The Unarchiver? Yes — it is cross-platform, free, open source, and small, and it reads RAR/7z/ZIP/tar and creates ZIP/7z/tar.
- Does it support encryption? Yes — AES-256 for ZIP and 7z it creates, and it reads encrypted RAR and 7z archives.

## Links

- Home: https://ziplark.com
- Download: https://ziplark.com/#download
- Formats: https://ziplark.com/#formats
- Source & releases: https://github.com/zhitongblog/ziplark