clean-my-mac-cli

🧹 Clean My Mac CLI

Free & Open Source alternative to CleanMyMac

Scan and remove junk files, caches, logs, and more — all from your terminal.

⚡ Quick Start

npx clean-my-mac-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 the selected items safely

🎬 See It In Action

$ npx clean-my-mac-cli

🧹 Clean My Mac
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Scanning your Mac for cleanable files...

Found 44.8 GB that can be cleaned:

? Select categories to clean (space to toggle, enter to confirm):
  ◉ 🟢 Trash                            2.1 GB (45 items)
  ◉ 🟢 Browser Cache                    1.5 GB (3 items)
  ◉ 🟢 Temporary Files                549.2 MB (622 items)
  ◉ 🟡 User Cache Files                15.5 GB (118 items)
  ◉ 🟡 Development Cache               21.9 GB (14 items)

Summary:
  Items to delete: 802
  Space to free: 41.5 GB

? Proceed with cleaning? (Y/n)

✓ Cleaning Complete!
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Trash                          ✓ 2.1 GB freed
  Browser Cache                  ✓ 1.5 GB freed
  Temporary Files                ✓ 549.2 MB freed
  User Cache Files               ✓ 15.5 GB freed
  Development Cache              ✓ 21.9 GB freed

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
🎉 Freed 41.5 GB of disk space!
   Cleaned 802 items

✨ Features

Feature	Description
🚀 One Command	Just run npx clean-my-mac-cli — no complex flags
🎯 Interactive	Select exactly what you want to clean with checkboxes
🛡️ Safe by Default	Risky items hidden unless you use --risky
🔍 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

🎯 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
homebrew	Homebrew download cache
docker	Unused Docker images, containers, volumes

🟡 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

🔴 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

📖 Usage

Basic Usage

# Interactive mode — scan, select, and clean
npx clean-my-mac-cli

# Include risky categories
npx clean-my-mac-cli --risky

Uninstall Apps

Remove applications completely with all their preferences, caches, and support files:

npx clean-my-mac-cli uninstall

Maintenance Tasks

# Flush DNS cache (may require sudo)
npx clean-my-mac-cli maintenance --dns

# Free purgeable space
npx clean-my-mac-cli maintenance --purgeable

Other Commands

# List all available categories
npx clean-my-mac-cli categories

# Manage configuration
npx clean-my-mac-cli config --init
npx clean-my-mac-cli config --show

# Manage backups
npx clean-my-mac-cli backup --list
npx clean-my-mac-cli backup --clean

💻 Global Installation

If you use this tool frequently:

npm install -g clean-my-mac-cli
clean-my-mac-cli

🔒 Security

✅ Open Source	All code publicly available for audit
✅ No Network	Operates 100% offline
✅ 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/clean-my-mac.git
cd clean-my-mac
npm install
npm run dev      # Run in dev mode
npm test         # Run tests
npm run lint     # Run linter
npm run build    # Build for production

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

• Fork the repository
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
• Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
• Open a Pull Request

📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

⚠️ Disclaimer
This tool deletes files from your system. While we've implemented safety measures, always ensure you have backups of important data.

Made with ❤️ by developers who were tired of paying $90 for CleanMyMac