File Centipede: a multi-protocol download manager whose GitHub repository cannot build it

The published source is a frontend reference, not a buildable program

The repository holds the frontend: the SML source used to implement the UI and the C++ source that goes with it. The backend stays closed. The project depends on commercially licensed C++ libraries, including the SML interpreter and other core libraries, and these are not provided as community software. The stated consequence is that the public source alone cannot build the complete application; it is intended as a reference for software design and implementation. If you were hoping to audit the whole download engine, patch it, or package it for a distribution from source, that is not possible here. GitHub reports no recognised licence for the repository, and the licensing statement says the permissions for the open-source components remain subject to their own licences and to any explicit written authorization from the developer. The developer may share more source free of charge for people building a project from scratch, at their discretion, but not for anyone planning to rebrand and republish the code as their own.

Free on Linux and FreeBSD, paid on Windows and macOS

The distribution model splits by operating system. File Centipede is free to use on Linux and FreeBSD. On Windows, macOS and other platforms it is distributed as paid software, and the repository root carries buy.html and activation_code.html pages for that side. This matters when you recommend it to others or deploy it across a mixed office: the same program costs nothing on a Linux workstation and requires a purchase on a Windows laptop. Builds come from the project website at filecxx.com and from the GitHub releases page, which also has a release/ directory and an update.json in the repository. A dashboard at w.filecxx.com and a devlog on dev.to are the other official channels. The README describes it as "No AI, no claims of 10x faster downloads", a general-purpose download manager, network file manager and file server.

One task list for HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent and custom download schemes

Version 1.0 already handled HTTP and HTTPS, FTP and FTPS, BitTorrent, magnet links and hash addresses, plus custom protocols such as Thunder, FlashGet and QQDL. It also accepts JSON-formatted download addresses and registers its own address schemes, filec and fileu. Resumable, multi-connection and gzip HTTP transfers are taken as given. The task options are where it earns its keep: custom cookies, request headers and User-Agent per download, anti-leeching protection, refreshing an expired download address without restarting, and changing a task's settings while it runs. Torrent users get seeding limits, tracker management, torrent export from tasks, and conversion in both directions between torrent files and magnet links. Downloads can be queued or run with unlimited concurrency, sorted into categories, and capped by separate download and upload speed limits.

Stream downloads stop at SAMPLE-AES

M3U8 stream downloads have been supported since 1.0, with AES-128 decryption. SAMPLE-AES decryption is not supported yet. For a reader this is a hard boundary: an HLS stream protected with SAMPLE-AES will not come out of File Centipede as a playable file, whatever other options you set, so check the stream before counting on it. Version 2.9 widened the streaming side considerably. It added DASH (MPD) stream downloads, live stream downloads, multi-file stream tasks and confirmation dialogs for stream tasks. It also added TS video file transcoding and repair, built-in video and audio merging, and automatic merging of separate video and audio tracks. A separate file merging tool has been present since 1.0.

The browser extension finds the media and links for you

Chrome and Firefox integration hands downloads from the browser to the desktop program. The extension goes further than link catching. It captures video and audio from web pages, through a video toolbar, a videos panel, an audios panel and dedicated video and audio collectors, with a video preview before you commit. A custom files panel and a resource explorer list the images and scripts a page loads. It can find every magnet link on a page, and since version 1.6 it can download all links from a web page in one go. Site rules, added in 2.1, and custom filters let you decide per site how captured resources are treated. Browser integration is listed for Chrome and Firefox only, so capture from any other browser is not covered.

Version 2.0 turned it into an SSH, FTP and WebDAV file manager

Version 2.0 added SSH and SFTP, WebDAV, file uploads, directory uploads and directory downloads, along with full file managers for WebDAV and WebDAVS, FTP and FTPS, and SSH and SFTP. File browser caches persist between sessions. The same release added command-line integration for curl, wget, aria2 and axel. Remote downloads arrived in 2.6, and 2.9 added a high-performance HTTP file server and settings for HTTP mirrors and CDNs, which is why the README calls it a file server as well as a download manager. Version 2.3 brought a checksum tool for verifying finished files. Smaller utilities ship alongside: an HTTP tool, URI and Base64 encoders, a regular expression tester, a translation tool and statistics.

Proxy modes in 2.9 cover rotation and fallback

Earlier versions had proxy management; 2.9 reworked it. HTTPS and SOCKS5 proxies are supported, the program can use the system proxy settings, and a batch tool tests proxies and extracts them from lists. Each proxy setup runs in one of four modes: Always, If available, As Backup, and Round robin. The repository also contains a public_lists/ directory. The proxy settings belong to File Centipede itself, so they are configured per program rather than through a separate proxy client, with the system proxy as one option.

A three-year gap between 2.82 and 2.9

The release history is uneven. Version 2.81 came out in January 2023 and 2.82 in February 2023; the next tagged release, 2.9, followed on 23 October 2026. The last push to main was on 26 October 2026. Anyone who evaluated the program from a 2023 build is looking at software that lacks DASH, live streams, the proxy modes and the file server. Translation is open to users through the built-in translation tool, with language files under lang/software/, lang/browser_extension/ and lang/website/, and the static website templates in tpl/. The program builds on Boost, Qt and libtorrent.

Editorial conclusion

File Centipede fits Linux and FreeBSD users who want one desktop program for HTTP, BitTorrent, stream and remote-server transfers, plus browser capture through Chrome or Firefox. Windows and macOS users should know it is paid software there. Nobody should pick it expecting a buildable open-source project: the backend is closed and depends on commercially licensed libraries. Before relying on it, check whether your streams use SAMPLE-AES, which it cannot decrypt, and download version 2.9 from filecxx.com or the GitHub releases page.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. filecxx/FileCentipede on GitHub
2. Issues
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases