mac-cleaner-cli
⚡ Quick Start
npx mac-cleaner-cli
That's it. No installation needed. The CLI will:
- 🔍 Scan your Mac for cleanable files
- 📋 Show you what was found with sizes
- ✅ Let you select exactly what to clean
- 🗑️ Clean only what you chose
🖥️ Desktop App (menu bar) — new
Prefer not to open a terminal? Mac Cleaner is a menu bar app built on the same scanners as the CLI.
- 🧹 Cleans automatically every day at the time you pick (temp files, browser cache, logs — you choose). If your Mac was asleep, it catches up when it wakes.
- ⚡ Clean Now from the menu bar whenever you want
- 🔥 Deep Clean (hard delete) — scan many more places, review the biggest items per category and permanently delete only what you tick, after a confirmation
- 📊 History of every run with the space freed per category, plus a notification after each automatic clean
- 🛡️ Risky categories are never cleaned unattended, and recently used temp files are left alone
Install or update it with one command:
npx mac-cleaner-cli app install
# or, without Node.js:
curl -fsSL https://guhcostan.github.io/mac-cleaner-cli/install.sh | bash
Both pick the build for your Mac (Apple Silicon or Intel), download the latest release, verify its SHA-256 checksum and install it into /Applications. Then give it Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security) so it can see every cache.
The .dmg files are also on Releases, but the app isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so a .dmg downloaded with a browser shows a Gatekeeper warning first (why, and how to open it). See desktop/ for details and how to build it yourself.
🎬 The CLI In Action
✨ Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| 🚀 One Command | Just run npx mac-cleaner-cli — no complex setup |
| 🎯 Interactive | Select exactly what you want to clean with checkboxes |
| 📁 File Explorer | Drill down (→) into categories to select specific folders/files |
| 🛡️ Safe by Default | Risky items hidden unless you use --risky |
| 👀 Dry Run | Preview exactly what would be deleted with --dry-run |
| ♻️ Optional Backups | Move items to a backup folder instead of deleting, restore later |
| 🤖 Scriptable | scan --json and clean --categories … --yes for cron and CI |
| 🖥️ Menu Bar App | Daily automatic cleaning, Deep Clean and history — npx mac-cleaner-cli app install |
| 🔍 Smart Scanning | Finds caches, logs, dev files, browser data, and more |
| 📱 App Uninstaller | Remove apps completely with all associated files |
| 🔧 Maintenance | Flush DNS cache, free purgeable space |
| 🔒 Privacy First | 100% offline — no data ever leaves your machine |
| 📦 Minimal Dependencies | Only 5 runtime deps, all from trusted maintainers |
💰 vs. Paid Alternatives
| Mac Cleaner CLI | CleanMyMac X | DaisyDisk |
|---|
| Price | Free | $39.95/year | $9.99 one-time |
| Open Source | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Telemetry / Analytics | ❌ None | ⚠️ Yes | ⚠️ Yes |
| Works via terminal | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Menu bar app | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Automatic daily cleaning | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| CI/CD friendly | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Customizable | ✅ Fork it | ❌ | ❌ |
| App Uninstaller | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| File-level selection | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
🎯 What It Cleans
🟢 Safe (always safe to delete)
| Category | What it cleans |
|---|
trash | Files in the Trash bin |
temp-files | Temporary files in /tmp and /var/folders |
browser-cache | Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Arc cache |
🟡 Moderate (generally safe)
| Category | What it cleans |
|---|
system-cache | Application caches in ~/Library/Caches |
system-logs | System and application logs |
dev-cache | npm, yarn, pip, Xcode DerivedData, CocoaPods |
node-modules | Orphaned node_modules in old projects |
homebrew | Homebrew download cache and old formula versions (brew cleanup --prune=all) |
docker | Unused images, stopped containers, build cache — only the types you select |
docker and homebrew are not "safe": their cleanup is performed by the
external tool, and it removes more than downloaded files. Docker removes images
that aren't used by a running container (they must be pulled or rebuilt
again), and Homebrew removes old formula versions. Docker volumes are never
touched — that's your data, not cache.
🔴 Risky (use --risky flag)
| Category | What it cleans |
|---|
downloads | Downloads older than 30 days |
ios-backups | iPhone and iPad backup files |
mail-attachments | Downloaded email attachments |
duplicates | Duplicate files (keeps newest) |
large-files | Files larger than 500MB |
language-files | Unused language localizations — breaks the app's code signature |
git-worktrees | Stale or orphaned git worktrees (agents, feature checkouts) |
📖 Usage
Basic Usage
# Interactive mode — scan, select, and clean
npx mac-cleaner-cli
# Include risky categories
npx mac-cleaner-cli --risky
# Preview what would be deleted, without deleting anything
npx mac-cleaner-cli --dry-run
# Enable file picker for all categories
npx mac-cleaner-cli --risky -f
Folder-Level Selection (Interactive)
In interactive mode, press → on supported categories to drill into specific folders/files:
↑↓ navigate • ← back • → enter • space select • a all • i invert • ⏎ submit
Supported categories: User Cache Files, Temporary Files, System Log Files, Development Cache, Browser Cache, Homebrew Cache.
Scripting & Automation (non-interactive)
# Scan only — see what can be cleaned without deleting anything
npx mac-cleaner-cli scan
# Machine-readable output for scripts and integrations
npx mac-cleaner-cli scan --json
npx mac-cleaner-cli scan --json --verbose # include item paths
# Clean specific categories without prompts (great for cron/CI)
npx mac-cleaner-cli clean --categories trash,browser-cache,homebrew --yes
# Preview first
npx mac-cleaner-cli clean --categories dev-cache --dry-run
# Clean everything that is safe, no selection UI
npx mac-cleaner-cli clean --all --yes
Risky categories (downloads, iOS backups, etc) are always skipped unless you pass --unsafe.
Uninstall Apps
Remove applications completely with all their preferences, caches, and support files:
npx mac-cleaner-cli uninstall
Maintenance Tasks
# Flush DNS cache (may require sudo)
npx mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --dns
# Free purgeable space
npx mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --purgeable
# Delete Time Machine local snapshots (requires sudo, asks for confirmation)
sudo npx mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine
# Preview it first, or skip the prompt
npx mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine --dry-run
sudo npx mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine --yes
Local snapshots are taken automatically by Time Machine and can grow to hundreds of gigabytes.
Deleting them is irreversible — they are your only local rollback point while the backup disk is
disconnected — but macOS recreates them as needed once it is reconnected.
Other Commands
# List all available categories
npx mac-cleaner-cli categories
# Manage configuration
npx mac-cleaner-cli config --init
npx mac-cleaner-cli config --show
# Manage backups
npx mac-cleaner-cli backup --list
npx mac-cleaner-cli backup --restore <dir>
npx mac-cleaner-cli backup --clean
# Install or update the menu bar app (--no-open, --dir <folder>)
npx mac-cleaner-cli app install
Backups (opt-in)
By default, cleaning is permanent: files are removed with rm -rf and do
not go to the Trash.
You can opt into backups by setting backupEnabled in ~/.maccleanerrc:
{ "backupEnabled": true }
With backups on, selected items are moved to ~/.mac-cleaner-cli/backup/<timestamp>/
instead of being deleted, and can be brought back with backup --restore.
Two honest caveats:
- Moving does not free disk space. The files still occupy the same volume.
Space is only reclaimed by
backup --clean, which deletes backups older than
7 days permanently.
- Docker and Homebrew cannot be backed up. Their cleanup is performed by the
external tool (
docker system prune, brew cleanup), so there is no file for
us to move. The CLI warns you before proceeding when these are selected.
If a backup fails, the item is not deleted — it stays where it is and the
failure is reported.
Flags
-V, --version Show version number
-h, --help Show help
-r, --risky Include risky categories
-d, --dry-run Show what would be deleted, delete nothing
-f, --file-picker Force file picker for ALL categories
-A, --absolute-paths Show absolute paths
--no-progress Disable progress bars
Troubleshooting
Scans tolerate unreadable paths (missing Full Disk Access, permission errors), so a
category can come back empty without an obvious reason. Set MAC_CLEANER_DEBUG=1 to
print every skipped path and the underlying error:
MAC_CLEANER_DEBUG=1 npx mac-cleaner-cli scan
Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 when a category could not be scanned or an item could
not be deleted. scan --json also reports failures in an errors array.
💻 Global Installation
If you use this tool frequently:
npm install -g mac-cleaner-cli
mac-cleaner-cli
🔒 Security
| |
|---|
| ✅ Open Source | All code publicly available for audit |
| ✅ No Network | Operates 100% offline (only app install talks to GitHub, to download the app) |
| ✅ No Root Required | All operations run as current user |
| ✅ Minimal Deps | Only 5 runtime dependencies |
| ✅ CI/CD | Every release tested with TypeScript, ESLint, and automated tests |
| ✅ Socket.dev | Dependencies monitored for supply chain attacks |
Found a vulnerability? Report it via GitHub Security Advisories.
🛠️ Development
git clone https://github.com/guhcostan/mac-cleaner-cli.git
cd mac-cleaner-cli
bun install
bun run dev # Run in dev mode
bun run test # Run tests
bun run lint # Run linter
bun run build # Build for production
Desktop app (Electron, lives in desktop/):
cd desktop
bun install
bun run start # Build and launch the menu bar app
bun run test # Run desktop tests
bun run dist # Package .dmg/.zip into desktop/release (macOS only)
bun run screenshots # Regenerate the README screenshots with sample data (needs Playwright)
🤝 Contributing
Contributions are very welcome! Whether it's a new scanner, a bug fix, or a documentation improvement — we'd love your help.
Read the full guide: CONTRIBUTING.md
Quick steps:
- Fork the repo
- Create your branch:
git checkout -b feat/my-feature
- Make your changes and add tests
- Run
bun run lint && bun run test
- Open a Pull Request
Looking for a place to start? Check issues labeled good first issue or help wanted.
💬 Community
⭐ Star History
If this tool saved you disk space, a star goes a long way! It helps more Mac users discover this free alternative to paid cleaners.
💚 Support
If this tool saved you time or disk space, consider supporting the project!
Your support helps maintain and improve this tool. Thank you! 🙏
📄 License
MIT License — see LICENSE for details.
