ClearDisk

Your Mac is hiding 50–500 GB of developer caches. ClearDisk finds them in seconds.

A free, open-source macOS menu bar app that monitors and cleans developer caches, Xcode, npm, Homebrew, Docker, pip, Cargo, Go, Gradle, and more. No data collection. No analytics. Network access is limited to signed update checks.

Why ClearDisk?

Your Mac's SSD is full of developer caches you forgot about. Xcode DerivedData alone can eat 200 GB. Add npm, Homebrew, Docker, pip, and Cargo — and you're losing hundreds of gigabytes to files that can be safely rebuilt.

Existing tools don't solve this: - DaisyDisk ($10) — shows what's big, but doesn't know what's safe to delete - DevCleaner for Xcode (1,500 ⭐) — only cleans Xcode. Ignores npm, pip, brew, Docker, Go, Cargo, Gradle - CleanMyMac ($40/yr) — bloated, expensive, trust issues - SquirrelDisk — dead (3 years, no updates)

ClearDisk scans 79 developer cache paths in one tool. Lives in your menu bar. Alerts you when disk gets full.

Features

• 79 Developer Caches — Xcode (DerivedData, Archives, Simulators, Caches, Device Support, Logs, Previews), Swift PM, CocoaPods, Carthage, Homebrew, npm, Yarn, pnpm (store and cache), Bun, Deno, node-gyp, TypeScript, pip, UV, Conda, Poetry, pipenv, Gradle, Maven, SBT/Ivy, Gradle Wrapper, Docker, Terraform, Composer, .NET NuGet, Go (modules and build cache), Rust Cargo, Bazel, Flutter/Pub, JetBrains, Ruby (Gems, rbenv, mise, RVM, Bundler), Android (Emulators, System Images, NDK), Testing (Playwright, Puppeteer, Prisma), AI Tools (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Ollama, HuggingFace, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf), VS Code (Cache, CachedData, Extensions, Chromium Cache, Logs, Updater), Game Engines (Unity, Unity Hub, Godot), Version Managers (nvm, pyenv, mise, rustup), Cloud (AWS CLI)
• Project Artifact Scanner — Finds stale per-project caches in your project folders, including repositories kept directly in your home directory. Detects 23 project types: Node.js / JS (incl. .next, .nuxt, .svelte-kit, .angular, .turbo, .vite, .parcel-cache, .yarn/cache, dist, build), Python (.venv, venv, __pycache__, .pytest_cache, .mypy_cache, .ruff_cache, .tox, *.egg-info), Rust, Swift PM, CocoaPods (Pods/), Carthage, Xcode (in-project build/, DerivedData/), Go, Gradle (Java + Kotlin), Maven, PHP/Composer, Ruby, Flutter/Dart, CMake, Terraform, .NET / C# (bin/, obj/), Godot (.godot/, .import/), Unity (Library/, Temp/, Logs/), Unreal (Binaries/, Intermediate/, DerivedDataCache/), Haskell, Elixir, Zig, Crystal. Each project can expose multiple artifacts (e.g. a Next.js project shows node_modules and .next and dist separately).
• Cache Descriptions — Every cache shows a human-readable explanation ("Downloaded Swift packages. Re-downloads on next build.") so you know exactly what you're deleting
• DerivedData Project Breakdown — Shows which projects live inside DerivedData (e.g. "MyApp: 2.3 GB, OtherApp: 1.1 GB") by reading info.plist
• Hero Dashboard — Big, clear display of total cleanable space with breakdown by dev caches and trash
• Menu Bar Monitor — Always-on disk usage display. Changes color at 80%/90% thresholds. Shows cleanable amount when disk is stressed
• Risk Levels — 🟢 Safe (rebuilds with a command), 🟡 Caution (large re-download needed), 🔴 Risky (may contain irreplaceable data)
• Xcode Running Check — Warns you if Xcode is running when you try to clean Xcode-related caches
• Safe Delete — Files go to Trash first and remain recoverable until Trash is emptied
• Visual Category Bars — Color-coded proportional bars showing what's eating your disk
• Appearance — Follow the system theme or use Light or Dark across ClearDisk's windows and panels
• Cleanup Tracking — distinguishes bytes moved to Trash from space actually reclaimed after Trash is emptied
• Storage Forecast — Predicts when your disk will be full based on usage trends (linear regression, 90-day history)
• Smart Suggestions — Age-based recommendations ("Not used for 90 days — safe to clean")
• Smart Notifications — Alerts at 80% and 90% disk usage, no spam
• Signed Automatic Updates — Checks GitHub Releases and installs Developer ID, notarized, EdDSA-verified updates through Sparkle
• 100% Private — No data collection or analytics. Network access is limited to signed update checks, and the source is open to inspection

Comparison

Installation

Homebrew (Easiest)

brew tap bysiber/cleardisk
brew trust bysiber/cleardisk
brew install --cask cleardisk

That's it. Homebrew handles everything, including the quarantine flag.

brew trust is required: recent Homebrew refuses to load casks from third-party taps until you explicitly trust them (Error: Refusing to load cask ... from untrusted tap). See Tap Trust.

Download DMG

1. Download the latest DMG from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag ClearDisk to Applications
3. Open ClearDisk from Applications. Release builds are Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple.

Once installed, ClearDisk checks for signed updates automatically and can install them directly from Settings → Check for Updates. Homebrew is not required for subsequent updates.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/bysiber/cleardisk.git
cd cleardisk
bash scripts/build_app.sh
cp -R ClearDisk.app /Applications/
xattr -cr /Applications/ClearDisk.app
open /Applications/ClearDisk.app

That's it. Click the disk icon in your menu bar.

Source builds are ad-hoc signed, while downloadable releases are Developer ID signed and notarized. The app is fully open-source, so every part of the update and cleanup flow can be inspected.

Requires macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon and Intel). Release builds are universal (arm64 + x86_64). Xcode Command Line Tools needed for building from source (xcode-select --install).

How It Works

ClearDisk refreshes free disk capacity every 5 minutes and scans known developer cache directories every 30 minutes:

~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData           → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives              → 🟡 Caution
~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices        → 🟡 Caution
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Products              → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport     → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Logs/CoreSimulator                    → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Previews     → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Caches        → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Caches/org.swift.swiftpm              → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods                      → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Caches/Homebrew                       → 🟢 Safe
~/.npm/_cacache                                 → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/pnpm/store                            → 🟢 Safe
~/.bun/install/cache                            → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Caches/pip                            → 🟢 Safe
~/.conda/pkgs                                   → 🟢 Safe
~/.gradle/caches                                → 🟢 Safe
~/.m2/repository                                → 🟢 Safe
~/.android/avd                                  → 🟡 Caution
~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker          → 🔴 Risky
~/.pub-cache                                    → 🟢 Safe
~/.cache/JetBrains                              → 🟢 Safe
~/.gem                                          → 🟢 Safe
~/.deno                                         → 🟢 Safe
~/.cache/uv                                     → 🟢 Safe
~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright                  → 🟢 Safe
~/.cache/huggingface                            → 🟡 Caution
...and more

It only looks at these specific paths — no full disk scan, no file indexing, no background processes.

When you clean, files are moved to Trash (not permanently deleted). You can recover them anytime before emptying Trash.

Privacy & Trust

• Update-only network access — ClearDisk contacts its public GitHub Releases feed only to check for signed updates
• Zero telemetry — no analytics, no crash reports, no usage data
• No persistent helper processes — Sparkle helpers run only while installing an update
• Open source — read every line of code yourself
• Safe delete — everything goes to Trash first

Tech Stack

• Swift + SwiftUI
• macOS
• SPM (Swift Package Manager)
• Sparkle 2 for signed, native macOS updates
• ~1,500 lines of code total

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

FAQ

License

MIT -- Kadir Can Ozden