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Browsers download a folder by building the whole ZIP in memory before anything reaches your disk. Folders over 2 GiB or 2,000 files can stall, and there is no way to resume — so Nika Planet hands folders past either limit to a small terminal tool instead. The Nika Planet Downloader writes straight to the drive you choose, transfers files in parallel, resumes where it left off, and verifies every file against the checksum storage reports. The web app sends large folders to the downloader. Individual file selections continue to use the normal browser download, even when a file is large. The downloader transfers the objects inside each selected folder individually; you can also run it directly for folders without starting from the web app.

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Install

One install covers every export, in any workspace.
With Homebrew:
It is ready to use as soon as the command finishes. brew upgrade nika-planet-downloader picks up new versions.No Homebrew? Use the install script instead:
The script adds the downloader to your PATH, so open a new terminal window before running it. Run the script again to update.

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Download a folder

Point the tool at a folder using a nikafs:// address:
You do not need to sign in first. If no session is cached, the command opens your browser once, and continues into the download as soon as you have authorised it.
--output is the parent directory. The folder structure from Nika Planet is recreated inside it, so --output ~/Downloads saves the example above to ~/Downloads/stac/cogs (on Windows, --output "$HOME\Downloads" saves it to Downloads\stac\cogs in your user folder). Passing --output ~/Downloads/stac would give you ~/Downloads/stac/stac.

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Finding the address

The nikafs:// address is your project id followed by the folder path:
  1. Project id — the UUID in the workspace URL while the project is open
  2. Folder path — right-click the folder in File Storage and choose Copy Path, which gives you something like /data/stac/cogs/
Join them: nikafs://<project-id>/data/stac/cogs Addresses do not expire. Keep one in a script or runbook and it will keep working for as long as you have access to that folder.

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Several folders at once

Pass as many addresses as you like. They may span different projects.

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Starting from the web app

If you select folders in File Storage and choose Download, anything too large for the browser collapses into a single row in Active Operations. Click Download via CLI for a dialog with the install command and the exact export command already filled in. It shows the commands for the operating system you are on; switch between macOS, Windows and Linux at the top if you are setting up another machine. Copy them and run them.

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Options

The flags above are the ones you are likely to reach for; run nika-planet-downloader export --help for the full list.

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Resuming

Press Ctrl-C at any point. Partly-transferred files are kept as .nikapart files, and re-running the identical command picks up where it stopped. Files that already finished are skipped after a size check, so repeating a command is cheap and safe.

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Other commands

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Access and privacy

The tool signs in as you. It can only download what your own Nika Planet account is already allowed to download, and that permission is re-checked on every request — so if your workspace access changes, an in-progress download stops. Read access is granted one hour at a time and can be revoked. Your session is stored in your operating system’s credential store — the Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows — never in a file.

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If something goes wrong

Open a new terminal window. The installer added the downloader to your PATH, and windows that were already open do not see the change.
You ran export with no address. Pass a nikafs:// address, or start a download from the web app and use Download via CLI.
The path is wrong or the folder is empty. Re-copy it with Copy Path and check the project id matches the workspace the folder is in.
Your access to that project changed. Ask a workspace owner to confirm you are still a contributor or above.
Re-run the identical command. Only the files that failed are retried; everything already downloaded is skipped.
Earlier versions of the downloader opened the sign-in page on Windows without the details it needs. Re-run the Windows install command to update, then sign in again.
Smart App Control, which is on by default on new Windows 11 installations, blocks programs it does not recognise yet, and the downloader is not code-signed. Windows offers no way to allow a single program past it, so run the downloader on another computer, or contact us below.
Windows does not run downloaded PowerShell scripts that way. Use install.cmd, or paste the irm … | iex command from the Windows install tab into PowerShell.
Still stuck? Email support@nikaplanet.com, or book a call for help with very large migrations.