Purge: Mac Cache Cleaner with Trash-Safe Deletion and App Uninstaller

What Purge Does and Who It Serves

Your Mac accumulates caches and artifacts that applications create on their own, that development tools leave after builds, and that users download and forget. These are not visible in a standard Finder window, and clearing them manually requires knowing where each application stores its data.

Purge addresses this by scanning known locations, labeling each item with a plain-English explanation and a safety rating, and routing every deletion through the Trash. The README states the core guarantee directly: nothing is ever deleted permanently. Anything Purge moves can come back from the Trash. That design choice distinguishes it from tools that permanently delete files during cleanup.

The target user is a Mac owner who wants to recover disk space without memorizing cache paths or running terminal commands. The app is also useful for developers managing large derived data directories, simulator runtimes, and multiple project dependency trees.

App Caches and System Junk

The App Caches section scans ~/Library/Caches, sandbox container caches, and what the README calls common system junk: application logs, crash reports, macOS installers, and the font cache. Each entry shows a friendly name, the app's icon, the folder size, and a plain-English explanation of what the cache contains.

Purge applies two safety labels:

- Safe to Clean: a known cache or rebuildable artifact that the README says is safe to remove. - Check First: may be safe, but removing it could cause inconvenience.

The README states that unidentified folders are left out of the list entirely. Purge only presents items it recognizes. Results stream into the view as they are found, so large vaults appear progressively rather than making you wait for a full scan to complete.

The Clean button at the top of the sidebar names the exact amount it will move, and it only touches Safe to Clean items by default. Keyboard shortcuts ⌘1 through ⌘3 switch between All, Safe to Clean, and Check First filters.

Dev Tools, iOS Simulators, and Project Artifacts

The Dev Tools section surfaces three distinct categories in one view. Global dev tool caches cover Xcode Derived Data, Archives, and DeviceSupport; Homebrew; npm; pnpm; Yarn; CocoaPods; Gradle; Flutter; Docker Desktop; VS Code; Cursor; JetBrains; Cargo; Terraform; and others. iOS Simulators groups unused simulator runtimes together and skips any simulator that is currently booted. Developer Projects detects node_modules, Python virtual environments, Rust target directories, Flutter build output, Xcode Pods, Android .gradle folders, and similar artifacts grouped by project folder.

The staleness threshold in Settings controls which project artifacts appear. The README describes the option as Choose Consider stale after, with a range from one month to two years, plus Show all. This threshold is the right first stop before running Dev Tools cleanup on an active machine, since a short threshold will surface artifacts from projects you might still return to next week.

Purge applies the same git and lockfile checks described for the main Clean button before touching project folders. The README does not elaborate on exactly which checks run, but names this as a guard against cleaning a project mid-development. When a project is actively being worked on, the check prevents the clean from proceeding until the project reaches a safe state, which avoids breaking the build environment during cleanup.

Large Files, Duplicates, and Local AI Models

The Large Files section scans Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Movies, Music, and Pictures. It skips managed libraries (Photos, iMovie, Music, and similar), hidden folders, and project directories such as node_modules, Pods, DerivedData, and build output. The README explains the reason for excluding dependency trees: deleting a single file from one breaks the install, so those belong in Dev Tools which removes them a folder at a time.

Filters let you narrow the list by size (5 MB to 1 GB) and last used date (any time up to over a year ago). Category chips cover videos, audio, images, PDFs, archives, documents, AI models, and other files. A search field matches the file name, the folder it sits in, and a source label. Sorting is available by size, date, or name.

The Duplicates sub-feature runs a byte-for-byte scan to find identical copies, groups them, and shows how much space you would reclaim by keeping one copy per group. The README states it suggests which copy to keep and marks the rest for Trash, but allows you to reassign the keeper to a different copy before anything is moved. A Keep one of each action clears an entire tab of duplicates in a single step after review.

Local AI model support is specific: Purge recognizes models downloaded with Ollama and LM Studio, names them the way they were installed, and understands Ollama's content-addressed storage. The README notes that Ollama uses shared blobs, so Purge counts only the bytes that would actually be reclaimed rather than counting all blobs a model references.

App Uninstaller: Full Removal vs. Dragging to Trash

Dragging an application to the Trash removes the bundle but leaves caches, preferences, containers, saved state, logs, and login helpers scattered across ~/Library and other locations. Purge's App Uninstaller finds those leftovers and removes everything in one pass.

The app lists installed applications from Applications and ~/Applications, skipping system apps and Purge itself. Each tile shows what an uninstall would reclaim: the bundle size plus the size of its removable leftovers. Selecting one or more apps opens a per-app review sheet that lists every item with its path, size, and safety label.

Matching is strict, the README states, to prevent one app's uninstall from sweeping in files shared across a vendor's app suite. Exact bundle ID and app group matches appear checked; looser name-only matches appear unchecked for manual confirmation. A running app is asked to quit gracefully first; if it does not quit, it is left installed and the rest of the batch proceeds.

An optional background watcher, off by default, can be enabled in Settings under Review leftovers when an app is deleted. When active, it notices any app leaving Applications or ~/Applications, including deletions you do yourself, and opens Purge with just that app's leftovers ready to review.

Installing Purge

Purge distributes through its website at purgemac.com and via GitHub Releases. The README links to both; the website provides the download directly and the Releases page shows version history. The most recent release was v1.6.1, released on 2026-09-27. Three separate releases shipped in the four days leading up to that date, indicating active iteration on the codebase.

For developers who want to build from source, the repository includes an Xcode project at purge.xcodeproj and a PurgeHelper helper target. The repository also includes a PurgeWatch target and PurgeTests. The package.json handles icon generation from simple-icons; it is a build-time script dependency, not a runtime one.

Scheduled cleaning can be enabled in Settings under Cleaning Schedule. The README lists weekly, monthly, every 3 months, or a Custom interval as options. The Clean Safe Files menu bar action runs the same safe cleanup on demand without opening the full app window.

Limitations: What Purge Does Not Cover

Purge scans a defined set of known locations. It does not scan arbitrary paths or custom software that stores data outside the locations it recognizes. The README says unidentified folders are left out entirely, which means unusual software that caches data in non-standard paths will not appear.

Large Files is limited to the six standard user directories. It is not a whole-disk scanner. If you store large files in a custom location outside Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Movies, Music, or Pictures, those files will not appear in the Large Files view.

App Uninstaller only lists apps from Applications and ~/Applications. Apps installed through the App Store or in non-standard locations may not appear or may appear with incomplete leftover detection.

Purge is a macOS-only application. There is no Windows or Linux version.

Maintenance and Licensing

The repository is under active development. The last push was on 2026-09-27, and three releases shipped in the four days before that date. The project is licensed under the MIT License, which permits commercial use, modification, and distribution without imposing source-sharing requirements.

Editorial conclusion

Purge is the right tool for Mac users who want a transparent, auditable way to reclaim disk space without trusting a black-box deletion process. The Trash-only policy and per-item safety labels make it safe to run without deep system knowledge. It is not a substitute for storage management at the infrastructure level, and it does not scan locations outside the specific directories it knows about. Verify that your dev setup is reflected in the Stale after threshold in Settings before running a scheduled clean on an active project machine.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. jithin-sabu/purge-app on GitHub
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases