Show HN: Nominate – a macOS app that renames PDFs based on their contents (opens in new tab)

Hi HN! I built Nominate to solve a common problem in my paperless workflow: having a pile of scanned PDFs with meaningless timestamp filenames.

Nominate is a native macOS app that uses on-device AI (via Ollama [1] / llama3.2) to analyze PDF contents, extracts dates and meaningful content summaries, suggests descriptive filenames (e.g., "2025-01-31 Bank Statement.pdf"), processes everything locally - your documents never leave your computer, and provides a simple drag-and-drop interface inspired by ImageOptim [2].

You can try it out by installing Ollama (brew install --cask ollama), pulling the llama3.2 model (ollama pull llama3.2), and cloning and building the project in Xcode.

The source is available here: https://github.com/NSHipster/Nominate

Right now it requires building from Xcode. If there's enough interest, I'll invest time in proper distribution (notarized builds, installer, etc.) to make it more accessible.

I'd love feedback on the UX, suggestions for improvements, or hearing about your own document management workflows!

[1] https://ollama.com [2] https://imageoptim.com/mac