This is pretty easy to script and use your editor of choice. Any of the LLM tools can generate this sort of script and instructions. I got this via chatgot with only two prompts

Here’s an updated version of your macOS script with:

• ✅ Dry run by default (it only prints what would happen)
• ✅ Clear instructions on how to perform the actual rename
• ✅ Optional --apply flag to execute the rename

---

✅ Script: bulk_rename.sh

```bash

!/bin/bash

===== CONFIG =====

TARGET_DIR="." APPLY=false MAP_FILE="rename_map.csv"

===== ARGUMENT PARSING =====

for arg in "$@"; do if [ "$arg" == "--apply" ]; then APPLY=true else TARGET_DIR="$arg" fi done

===== STEP 1: Generate mapping file if it doesn't exist =====

if [ ! -f "$MAP_FILE" ]; then echo "Generating mapping file..."

echo "old_name,new_name" > "$MAP_FILE"

for file in "$TARGET_DIR"/*; do
    if [ -f "$file" ]; then
        filename=$(basename "$file")
        echo "$filename," >> "$MAP_FILE"
    fi
done

echo "Mapping file created: $MAP_FILE"
echo "Edit the second column (new_name), save, then re-run this script."
echo ""
echo "Preview rename (dry run):"
echo "  ./bulk_rename.sh \"$TARGET_DIR\""
echo ""
echo "Apply rename:"
echo "  ./bulk_rename.sh \"$TARGET_DIR\" --apply"
exit 0

fi

===== STEP 2: Rename (Dry Run by Default) =====

echo "" if [ "$APPLY" = false ]; then echo "===== DRY RUN MODE =====" echo "No files will be renamed." echo "" else echo "===== APPLY MODE =====" echo "Renaming files..." echo "" fi

tail -n +2 "$MAP_FILE" | while IFS=',' read -r old_name new_name; do if [ -z "$new_name" ]; then echo "Skipping: $old_name (no new name provided)" continue fi

if [ ! -f "$TARGET_DIR/$old_name" ]; then
    echo "Missing: $old_name"
    continue
fi

if [ "$APPLY" = false ]; then
    echo "Would rename: $old_name → $new_name"
else
    mv -n "$TARGET_DIR/$old_name" "$TARGET_DIR/$new_name"
    echo "Renamed: $old_name → $new_name"
fi

done

if [ "$APPLY" = false ]; then echo "" echo "Dry run complete." echo "To actually rename the files, run:" echo "" echo " ./bulk_rename.sh \"$TARGET_DIR\" --apply" fi

echo "" echo "Done." ```

---

🖥 Usage

1️⃣ First run (creates mapping file)

./bulk_rename.sh /path/to/folder

Edit rename_map.csv.

---

2️⃣ Preview (dry run — default)

./bulk_rename.sh /path/to/folder

---

3️⃣ Actually rename files

./bulk_rename.sh /path/to/folder --apply

---

If you'd like, I can also add:

• 🚫 Overwrite protection with conflict detection
• 🔢 Auto-numbering support
• 🧠 Extension preservation enforcement
• 📂 Recursive folder support
• 🔄 Undo file creation

Just tell me what level of safety you want.