HatchZip

xevrion/hatchzipReviewed by AI

What it does

HatchZip is a free archive extractor with a desktop app and a command line tool. It opens ZIP, 7z, RAR, tar and split archives and extracts them in place: the archive file shrinks as the files come out, so you only need free space for the extracted files, not for both. It helps when a large download will not fit on an almost full disk. It checks that the plan fits before changing anything and can carry on after a crash. When it finishes, the archive is gone, unless you pick the option that keeps it. There are installers for Windows, macOS and Linux.

How easy it is to install

A · download and open · Windows

Windows A
macOS A
Linux A

All three platforms are A because release v0.1.8 has ready installers: HatchZip-x64-setup.exe or HatchZip-x64.msi for Windows, HatchZip-aarch64.dmg and HatchZip-x86_64.dmg for macOS, and hatchzip_amd64.deb, hatchzip-x86_64.rpm or HatchZip-x86_64.AppImage for Linux, with nothing else to install. The files are not code-signed yet, so on Windows you have to click "More info" then "Run anyway", and on macOS 15 and later you open the app once and then allow it in System Settings, Privacy & Security.

Numbers on GitHub

Stars: 2,385on Oct 31, 2026
Downloads: 19,0214,552 this week
Growth: +209stars in 4 days

Stars over time

Facts

Runs on: Windows, macOS, Linux
You need to install: Nothing extra
To build from source: Rust
Disk space: 9 MB–28 MB · from the installer
Accounts or keys: None
Cost: Free · Free and open source, under the MIT or the Apache-2.0 licence at your choice. RAR reading in the release builds uses the UnRAR source under its own freeware licence.
License: Apache-2.0 (Permissive)
Can replace: WinRAR, WinZip
Last update: Oct 30, 2026

Risk signals (6)

Attentionvery young project fast releases
The repository was created on 2026-10-21 and already has 9 releases, the latest being v0.1.8 on 2026-10-28, and Cargo.toml says version = "0.1.8". A tool that deletes your archive while reading it is still at an early 0.1.x stage.
AI review
Attentiondeletes the archive while extracting
README: "HatchZip destroys the archive as it extracts" and "When the extraction is complete, the archive has been removed and the files are in the output folder." If something goes wrong in the middle, the archive is partly gone: "if the download itself is damaged, the files before the damaged spot are extracted and the archive is partly gone." Keeping the archive needs the --keep-archive option or the setting in the app.
AI review
Attentionprogress files must not be deleted
README: progress lives in "game.zip.hatchzip" and "game.zip.hatchzip-tail" next to the archive, and "Do not delete them while an extraction is unfinished: they hold the archive's index, which is no longer inside the archive itself."
AI review
Attentionnot code signed antivirus flags
README: "The Windows installers and the macOS apps are not code-signed yet", and "On VirusTotal, the v0.1.3 Windows setup is flagged by 4 of 70 engines, all heuristic or machine-learning scores; Microsoft Defender reports it clean." The project offers SHA-256 files and "gh attestation verify" to check a download.
AI review
Infowritten with ai assistants
README section "How it is built": "HatchZip is written with the help of AI coding assistants, and AGENTS.md is the rulebook they work under." It also claims more than 130 tests on Linux, macOS and Windows, which we did not run.
AI review
Infocopycat download sites
README: "HatchZip is only distributed from this repository's releases and its site, hatchzip.dev. Other sites using the name, such as hatchzip.com, are not affiliated with this project."
AI review

Evidence is shown in its original language.

What Radar could not check

Whether extracting in place really frees space on your own disk: the README says hole punching on NTFS and APFS is "not yet verified".
Whether a crash, a power cut or Ctrl+C always resumes with every file intact, as described.
The speed and space figures in the README, which were measured only on the author's Fedora machine.
Whether your antivirus will block the unsigned installer.
What happens to a damaged archive you cannot download again if you do not use --verify-first.
The real disk space used: the checks estimate 9 to 28 MB for the installers.