RemoveMacAI kills Apple Intelligence with a profile and deletes the models

A configuration profile replaces the switch macOS 27 removed

macOS 27 no longer has a single switch for Apple Intelligence, and its models stay on disk after the features are turned off. RemoveMacAI, a Swift command line tool, addresses both halves of that. It installs a configuration profile that applies Apple's restriction keys for Apple Intelligence, and for the settings that have no restriction key it forces the values instead. Model deletion goes through Apple's own asset service, so System Integrity Protection stays enabled and nothing under /System is modified directly. The tool makes no network requests and collects no data.

What you end up with is a visible profile in System Settings rather than a hidden daemon or a patched system file. That decision shapes everything else. Because the state lives in a profile, removing the profile restores the previous settings, and macOS downloads the models again when a feature needs them. The upstream project credits pared by 4evy for mapping Apple's asset service, the model sets and the settings keys the tool relies on.

A closed local port is what stops macOS fetching the models again

Deleting the files alone would be undone by the next request from any feature that still wants them, so the profile also redirects the download of each removed model to a closed local port. The request fails on the machine instead of reaching Apple's asset service. No listener is opened and nothing is substituted for the model.

This is the part with a lasting consequence. While the profile is in place, macOS updates do not restore the models, because the profile, including the download block, persists across updates. It also means a model removed this way has no path back except `removemacai revert`, which drops the profile and lets the normal download happen again. Anyone who turns off the features temporarily and expects macOS to quietly refill them later will find that the block holds until the revert runs.

The one-line installer pipes a binary from a temporary directory

Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities, paste this line and press Return:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash

The script downloads the latest release, verifies its SHA-256 checksum and runs it from a temporary directory. Nothing is installed to a permanent location, and the tool makes no network requests of its own. Running it prints the current state, asks for confirmation, then opens System Settings so you can approve the configuration profile, which macOS requires you to accept yourself. After the approval it removes the models.

Homebrew users have a tap. This installs a real binary on the PATH:

brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai
removemacai

Both paths need Apple silicon. macOS 27 is the only supported version, tested on 27.0, and on 27.0.1 you need 0.2.3 or newer. macOS 26 and earlier are not supported.

Verifying a browser download means checksumming, then clearing quarantine

If you would rather not pipe a script into a shell, download `removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz` and its `.sha256` file from the newest GitHub build page, then run this in the folder you saved them to:

shasum -a 256 -c removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz.sha256
tar xzf removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine removemacai
./removemacai

The `xattr` line is not optional decoration. The binary is ad-hoc signed but not notarized, so macOS refuses to run a copy that came through a browser until the quarantine flag is removed. GitHub Actions builds every published artifact from its tag, and each one carries a build provenance attestation, which you can check with:

gh attestation verify removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz -R omlahore/RemoveMacAI

The checksum proves the tarball matches its published hash, and the attestation ties that artifact to this repository's source and build.

Choosing which features survive with keep, and previewing with dry-run

Removal is per feature, and the tool names each one. `removemacai features` prints the names accepted by `--keep`. To turn everything off except two Photos features, pass them through the installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash -s -- off --keep spatial-photos,photos-clean-up

The full off run reaches Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, summaries in Mail, Messages, Safari, Notes and notifications, Mail smart replies, inline text predictions, Spatial Photos, Photos Clean Up, Xcode predictive code completion, and Siri including Hey Siri and the menu bar icon. Under `--keep`, a feature left alone that is already off stays off until you turn it on yourself, which is worth knowing before you assume keeping means untouched.

Preview the plan before applying it:

removemacai off --dry-run
removemacai features

The dry run prints the changes without touching anything, and `removemacai status` afterwards reports each feature plus the size of the models on disk.

A failed off run keeps the profile and blocks the download anyway

Here is the gap between the promise and the code path. The project description calls the whole operation fully reversible in one command, yet the off subcommand can end badly. Model sizes the asset service cannot report are shown as `unknown`, and when removal fails or cannot be confirmed, it exits with status 1 and leaves the configuration profile active. The advice is to read the warnings and run `removemacai status` before trying again.

That partial state is the awkward one. The features are already off, the port that blocks re-download is already in place, and the model files may still be sitting there, because the exit code tells you nothing about which half succeeded. Since the block only lifts with the profile, you cannot delete the models by hand and have macOS refill them the normal way. A second off run, or `removemacai revert`, is the only way to find out which state you are in. The installer makes the same point from the other side by claiming nothing is installed, while the profile it leaves behind is a real system artifact until you revert.

Storage lag and a Siri process are not signs of failure

Two behaviours look like a failed run and are not. Apple's asset service hands the models back right away, but macOS deletes the files on its own schedule, so System Settings under General and Storage keeps listing them under Apple Intelligence until that sweep happens. Disk space in Finder can lag the same way.

The second is a process named Siri that stays in the process list. In macOS 27 the Spotlight window runs as a process called Siri, and some system services stay loaded behind System Integrity Protection. Seeing either one after a removal does not mean the profile failed to apply. `removemacai status` is the check that separates the two, and it reports each feature alongside the model size on disk, or `unknown` where the asset service cannot report one.

What does stop working is deliberate, and it reaches past the features the tool names. Apps that use Apple's on-device models lose the Foundation Models framework and the Use Model action in Shortcuts, along with Visual Intelligence and natural-language editing in Calendar. That last pair is the one to check first if you use Calendar heavily, because neither appears in the list of features the tool turns off. Notifications, Mail smart replies and inline text predictions are inside the off set, which matters for anyone who relies on Mail drafting. Dictation is a separate setting and its speech models are not removed, so dictation keeps working.

The last push was on 2026-10-06 and the repository is MIT licensed, which matters if you intend to read or patch the Swift sources rather than only run the binary.

Reverting drops the profile and lets the models download again

Going back is a single command, and the one-line installer takes the revert argument directly:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash -s revert

That removes the profile, which restores the settings and lifts the download block. macOS then downloads the models again when a feature needs them, so the space you reclaimed comes back the first time you use something that depends on them. Expect to pay the download cost twice if you revert and then run off again.

A Homebrew install is then removed with `brew uninstall removemacai`. The uninstall section of the project covers exactly these two steps and nothing else, so a manual tarball copy needs the profile removed before the file can be deleted.

Editorial conclusion

RemoveMacAI suits Mac owners on Apple silicon running macOS 27 who want the Apple Intelligence models off their disk without writing to /System. Anyone on macOS 26 or earlier gets nothing from it, and anyone who relies on the Foundation Models framework, Visual Intelligence or natural-language editing in Calendar loses working features on purpose. Before the first run, confirm the machine sits on 27.0.1, then run `removemacai off --dry-run`, apply it, and check `removemacai status` for a size that is not `unknown`.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. omlahore/RemoveMacAI on GitHub
4. README
5. Releases