ClearDisk: a macOS menu bar app that audits 74 developer cache paths

What ClearDisk solves, and who it is for

The README opens with a blunt claim: a Mac can be hiding 50 to 500 GB of developer caches, and Xcode DerivedData alone can eat 200 GB. Whether or not those numbers match your machine, the underlying problem is real for a specific audience. If you build iOS apps, run Node and Python projects, and pull Docker images, your SSD accumulates directories that no one deleted because deleting them by hand is tedious and slightly frightening. ClearDisk is a menu bar app that scans 74 developer cache paths, groups them, and lets you send selected ones to Trash.

The intended user is a Mac developer who wants a GUI rather than a shell loop over rm -rf. That is a narrower audience than the README's marketing suggests. The app requires macOS 14 or later, so anyone on an older machine is out. It is also macOS-only by construction, which matters because the most common search phrasing around this topic is generic disk cleanup, and ClearDisk is not a general-purpose disk cleaner. It has no interest in your Photos library or your Downloads folder. It cares about build outputs and package manager stores.

The comparison table in the README positions ClearDisk against DaisyDisk, DevCleaner, npkill, kondo, mac-cleanup and CleanMyMac. The distinction it draws is that a disk visualizer shows what is large but not what is safe to delete. ClearDisk's answer to that is a risk level attached to each cache, plus a one-line human-readable description such as "Downloaded Swift packages. Re-downloads on next build." That description is the actual product. The scanning is not hard; knowing what a directory is for is what saves you from a bad afternoon.

How the scanner works: 74 global paths plus a project artifact pass

ClearDisk runs two different kinds of scan. The first is a fixed list of 74 cache paths in known locations, covering Xcode (DerivedData, Archives, Simulators, Caches, Device Support, Logs, Previews), Swift PM, CocoaPods, Carthage, Homebrew, npm, Yarn, pnpm, Bun, Deno, node-gyp, TypeScript, pip, UV, Conda, Poetry, pipenv, Gradle, Maven, SBT/Ivy, Docker, Terraform, Composer, Go modules and build cache, Cargo, Bazel, Flutter/Pub, JetBrains, Ruby tooling, Android emulators and NDK, test runners such as Playwright and Puppeteer, AI tool caches, VS Code caches, game engine caches, version managers and the AWS CLI. Because these are known paths, the scan is a directory walk with size accounting, not a heuristic search across the whole volume.

The second scan is the more interesting one. A project artifact scanner walks your project folders, including repositories kept directly in your home directory, and looks for 23 project types. A single project can expose several artifacts at once: the README gives the example of a Next.js project showing node_modules, .next and dist as separate entries. That granularity is the point. You can delete .next and keep node_modules, or the reverse, instead of nuking the whole project directory.

Two implementation details are visible in the README. The DerivedData breakdown reads info.plist to attribute space to individual projects, producing output like "MyApp: 2.3 GB, OtherApp: 1.1 GB". And there is an Xcode running check that warns you before you clean Xcode-related caches while Xcode is open. Neither is exotic, but both show the scanner is doing more than summing directory sizes.

Deletion is deliberately conservative. Files go to Trash first and remain recoverable until Trash is emptied. The app tracks cleanup as two separate numbers: bytes moved to Trash, and space actually reclaimed after Trash is emptied. If you have ever been confused about why a cleaner reported 40 GB freed but Finder shows no change, that distinction is the explanation.

Installing ClearDisk with Homebrew and running a first scan

The README gives Homebrew as the easiest route, and it requires an extra step that trips people up. Recent Homebrew refuses to load casks from third-party taps until you explicitly trust them, producing an error about an untrusted tap. So the install is three commands, not one:

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

After the cask installs, Homebrew handles the quarantine flag, so you should be able to launch the app from Applications without a Gatekeeper dialog. If you prefer not to use a tap, the README also documents downloading the latest DMG from Releases, dragging ClearDisk to Applications, and opening it. Release builds are Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple.

Building from source is a separate path and produces a differently signed binary:

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

Source builds are ad-hoc signed, while downloadable releases are Developer ID signed and notarized. The xattr -cr line clears extended attributes, which is what you need after copying a locally built app into Applications.

Once running, the app lives in the menu bar. Click the disk icon to see the dashboard: total cleanable space, a breakdown by dev caches and trash, and color-coded category bars. From there you select entries and clean them. The README does not document a CLI or a scriptable interface, so everything goes through the menu bar UI. If you were hoping to run this from a Makefile, that is not what this is.

Where ClearDisk stops being the right tool

The fixed-path design is both the strength and the ceiling. ClearDisk knows 74 cache locations and 23 project types. If your toolchain is not on that list, the scanner will not find its cache, and there is no documented way to teach it a new path. A team using an internal build system with a home-grown artifact directory gets nothing from this app. The README does not describe a plugin mechanism, a user-defined path list, or a config file for extending coverage.

The Trash-first model is also a real constraint, not a free win. Deletions consume disk space until you empty Trash, so on a nearly full drive, cleaning 30 GB of caches may not free 30 GB until you take the second step. The app's own cleanup tracking exists precisely because those two numbers diverge. If you expect a one-click reclaim, you will be surprised.

Risk levels are a labeling scheme, not a guarantee. The README defines three tiers: green for caches that rebuild with a command, yellow for those needing a large re-download, and red for caches that may contain irreplaceable data. A red label tells you to look before deleting; it does not tell you what specifically is in there. For something like an AI tool cache or a Unity Library folder, you are still making a judgement call.

Finally, the platform requirement rules out a large group. macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon and the other architecture the README lists in its truncated requirements line. If your team is split across macOS, Linux and Windows, this is a Mac-only answer to a cross-platform problem, and the search data reflects that gap: people ask about clearing disk usage on Windows 10 and on PC, and ClearDisk has nothing to say about either.

ClearDisk versus npkill and kondo: GUI against CLI

The closest functional overlap is with npkill and kondo, both of which appear in the README's comparison table. npkill is a CLI that finds node_modules directories and lets you delete them interactively. kondo is a CLI that handles 24 project types and cleans build artifacts. Both are free and open source, MIT licensed, and both run from a terminal.

The difference is not features so much as where the decision happens. npkill's scope is essentially one artifact type, node_modules, with a documented count of 50-plus paths. kondo covers 24 project types. ClearDisk enumerates 74 cache paths plus 23 project types, and adds things neither CLI handles: a menu bar monitor that changes color at 80 and 90 percent disk usage, risk levels, cache descriptions, a DerivedData breakdown by project, and a storage forecast based on linear regression over 90 days of history.

The deletion behavior differs too, and this is the most consequential split. The README's table states that npkill and kondo use rm -rf, while ClearDisk moves files to Trash. If you are comfortable with irreversible deletion and want a fast terminal loop, the CLIs are lighter and scriptable. If you want a recoverable step and a visual sense of what is eating the disk, ClearDisk's approach costs you the extra Trash-emptying step but gives you an undo.

Against DevCleaner, the split is coverage. DevCleaner is Xcode-focused with 6 paths per the table, and it also uses removeItem rather than Trash. ClearDisk claims 9 Xcode paths plus everything outside Xcode. If you only build iOS apps, DevCleaner may be sufficient. If your disk is full because of Docker, Gradle and pip rather than Xcode, ClearDisk is the one that looks at those.

Maintenance, licensing and update mechanics

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-08-28, with v2.0.25 released the same day. That is recent enough that the project is being touched, but the release history available is short: v2.0.1 on 2026-08-26, v2.0.2 on 2026-08-27, v2.0.25 on 2026-08-28. Three releases in three days is a burst, not a cadence, and there is no record of what came before or after. Treat version churn as something to watch rather than assume.

Upgrades are handled in-app. ClearDisk checks GitHub Releases and installs Developer ID signed, notarized, EdDSA-verified updates through Sparkle. The README states that Homebrew is not required for subsequent updates, so installing via cask does not lock you into upgrading via cask. There is also a manual path under Settings, Check for Updates. The README does not document rollback to a previous version, so if a release misbehaves, downgrading is not described.

Licensing is MIT. That is permissive: you can read the source, fork it, and ship a modified build, subject to the usual attribution terms in the LICENSE file. The README's privacy claim is worth noting alongside the license, because it is a claim you can actually check: no data collection, no analytics, and network access limited to signed update checks. Since the source is open, that claim is verifiable rather than a promise. This is not legal advice; read the LICENSE file at the repository root if you plan to redistribute.

The upgrade cost is low for users and non-trivial for contributors. Swift package resolution is pinned in Package.resolved, the build script is scripts/build_app.sh, and tests live under Tests/. Anyone modifying the scanner needs to keep 74 paths and 23 project types in sync with whatever the app displays.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt ClearDisk if you develop on macOS 14+ and want a single menu bar view of DerivedData, node_modules, Docker layers and package manager caches, with Trash as a safety net and risk labels on each entry. Do not adopt it if you work primarily in a terminal, if you need a cross-platform tool, or if you expect it to find caches outside the 74 paths and 23 project types it enumerates. Before you rely on it, verify three things: that your macOS version is 14 or later, that brew trust succeeds for the third-party tap, and that its Trash-first model matches your retention habits, since the app's own cleanup tracking distinguishes bytes moved to Trash from space actually reclaimed after Trash is emptied.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official documentation
2. Official README
3. Project repository
4. Release notes