A macOS menu bar app for inspecting and cleaning developer caches stored in your Home folder and selected workspaces.
DevCacheCleaner scans common cache-heavy directories, shows how much disk space they use, and lets you clean one category, all supported categories, or generated workspace folders with live progress feedback.
You can download the app from the Mac App Store.
If you want to reclaim storage used by Xcode, Gradle, CocoaPods, npm, Yarn, Bun, browsers, design apps, project dependencies, and other development tools without manually digging through ~/Library, hidden folders, and workspace build outputs, this project is built for that workflow.
DevCacheCleaner keeps the scope intentionally focused:
- It only scans paths defined in the app configuration
- It works inside the user Home directory
- It asks for explicit Home-folder access before reading or deleting anything
- It shows cleanup progress while files are being removed
- Menu bar utility built with SwiftUI
- Security-scoped access to the user Home directory
- Per-category storage overview
- Single-category cleanup
- Clean-all workflow across all non-empty categories
- Workspace selection with persisted access
- Workspace cleanup for generated dependency and build folders
- Optional Clean All checkbox to include the selected workspace
- Workspace details view showing the generated folders that can be cleaned
- Cleanup progress window with live deletion feedback
- Automatic refresh when watched cache folders change
- The app requests access to your Home folder and stores a security-scoped bookmark.
- Storage categories are built from configured paths in
Constants.swift. - Each category is scanned and displayed in the main menu bar window.
- Folder changes are monitored so affected categories can refresh automatically.
- You can optionally select a workspace folder. The app scans it for supported generated directories such as
node_modules,Pods,.build,.gradle, andbuild. - Cleanup runs for one category, all non-empty Home-folder categories, the selected workspace, or Clean All plus the selected workspace when the confirmation checkbox is enabled.
- Cleanup progress is reported in a separate window.
- Open
DevCacheCleaner.xcodeproj - Select the
DevCacheCleanerscheme - Run the app
The app launches from the macOS menu bar and opens a secondary window during cleanup to display progress.
The project follows a simple layered structure:
Common: shared constants, managers, utilities, extensions, dependency containerData: repository implementationsDomain: entities, repository protocols, and use casesPresentation: SwiftUI views, view models, and shared UI stateDevCacheCleanerTests: use case, mock, and view model tests
Main behavior is driven by focused domain use cases such as:
LoadStorageOverviewUseCaseRefreshStorageCategoryUseCaseCleanStorageCategoryUseCaseCleanAllStorageCategoriesUseCaseLoadWorkspaceCleanupCategoryUseCaseReadDiskSpaceUseCaseObserveDiskChangesUseCaseSaveWorkspaceAccessUseCaseResolveWorkspaceAccessUseCase
DevCacheCleaner/
├── DevCacheCleanerApp.swift # Menu bar app entry and window scenes
├── Assets.xcassets/ # App icon and in-app artwork
├── Common/
│ ├── Extensions/ # Shared helpers for URL, storage sizes, collections, colors
│ ├── Managers/ # File-system, monitoring, and Home-access integrations
│ └── Utils/ # Constants, alerts, parameters, shared utilities
├── Data/
│ └── Repositories/ # Repository implementations
├── Domain/
│ ├── Entities/ # Storage models and cleanup progress events
│ ├── Repositories/ # Repository protocols
│ └── UseCases/
│ ├── Cleanup/ # Clean one category or all categories
│ ├── HomeAccess/ # Security-scoped Home-folder access
│ ├── Monitoring/ # Folder change observation
│ └── Storage/ # Build, load, refresh, and read storage data
├── Presentation/
│ ├── Stores/ # Shared progress state for the cleanup window
│ ├── Views/ # Reusable SwiftUI views
│ └── ... # Home/progress views and view models
└── DevCacheCleanerTests/
├── UseCase/ # Domain use case tests
├── ViewModel/ # Presentation view model tests
├── mock/ # Repository mocks
└── Utils/ # Shared test fixtures and async helpers
DevCacheCleaner ships with built-in cleanup categories defined in
Constants.swift. Each one
groups a set of cache paths inside the user Home directory and is scanned,
displayed, and cleaned as a single category in the app.
| Category | Typical Targets | Example Paths |
|---|---|---|
| IDE Caches (VS Code, Cursor, Android Studio...) | VS Code, Cursor, Android Studio, and Unity Hub cache data | ~/Library/Application Support/Code/Cache, ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/Cache, ~/Library/Caches/Google |
| Package Manager Caches (npm, Homebrew, CocoaPods...) | npm, Yarn, pnpm, Bun, CocoaPods, Homebrew, Composer, and SwiftPM caches | ~/.npm/_cacache, ~/Library/Caches/Yarn, ~/.bun/install/cache |
| Language Caches (Python, Rust, Go, Flutter...) | Python, Rust, Go, Flutter, and Dart dependency or build caches | ~/Library/Caches/pip, ~/.cargo/registry/cache, ~/Library/Caches/go-build, ~/.pub-cache |
| JVM Build Caches (Gradle, Maven...) | Gradle cache and daemon data, plus the Maven local repository | ~/.gradle/caches, ~/.gradle/daemon, ~/.m2/repository |
| Xcode Caches and DerivedData | DerivedData, Archives, simulator data, Xcode caches | ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData, ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives, ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices |
| Browser Caches (Chrome, Safari, Firefox...) | Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera caches | ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome, ~/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser, ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari |
| Design App Caches (Figma, Adobe, Motion...) | Figma, Adobe, and Apple Motion cache data | ~/Library/Application Support/Figma, ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common, ~/Library/Containers/Motion/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.motionapp/Retiming Cache Files |
Some built-in categories use prefix-based matching. For example, the
IDE category only targets AndroidStudio* directories inside
certain JetBrains and Google cache roots.
Workspace cleanup is separate from the Home-folder cache categories. After a workspace is selected, DevCacheCleaner scans the project tree for known marker files and only offers cleanup for generated directories that match those rules.
| Project Type | Marker Files | Generated Directory |
|---|---|---|
| Node.js | package.json |
node_modules |
| CocoaPods | Podfile |
Pods |
| Swift Package Manager | Package.swift |
.build |
| Android Gradle root | settings.gradle, settings.gradle.kts |
.gradle |
| Android module build output | build.gradle, build.gradle.kts |
build |
The selected workspace can be cleaned directly from the workspace row. It can also be included in the Clean All flow by checking the workspace option in the confirmation alert. When this option is checked, the progress total includes both the Home-folder cache categories and the selected workspace cleanup size.
Workspace cleanup is intended for generated dependency and build folders only. Source files, project files, and marker files are not part of the cleanup targets.
- Add a Settings screen
- Make the minimum cleanup size threshold configurable
- Allow users to enable or disable built-in cache categories
- Allow users to manage ignored workspace paths
- Add configurable workspace cleanup rules
- Add a preview step before deleting files
- Improve progress labels for combined Clean All and workspace cleanup
- The app only cleans paths explicitly listed in
Constants - Some configured paths use prefix matching so only specific child directories are removed
- Workspace cleanup only targets generated directories matched by
WorkspaceCleanupRuleEntity - Clean All includes the selected workspace only when the confirmation checkbox is checked
- Cleanup deletes cache contents and cannot be undone
- Backing up anything important before cleaning is still the safer choice
The source code in this repository is licensed under GPL-3.0-only. See
LICENSE.
The project name, logos, icon assets, and official branding are not granted
under the GPL code license. See TRADEMARKS.md.
Official Mac App Store releases are published by Karim Angama.