u/hlibs

I always kept switching to CleanMyMac mid-build just to clear Docker bloat or nuke node_modules. It broke my flow every time. So I wrapped the CleanMyMac cleanup engine into a CLI instead.

CleanMyMac CLI is now in public beta. Terminal-native, dev-focused, no GUI needed.

cleanmymac clean -- system junk, dev tool caches, trash
cleanmymac purge --- project artifact scanner, node_modules, Docker, .build, venv and more
cleanmymac analyze -- interactive disk explorer
cleanmymac optimize -- RAM and purgeable space

Public beta, free to try:
brew install --cask macpaw/taps/cleanmymac-cli

GitHub + docs: https://github.com/MacPaw/cleanmymac-cli

Any feedback is welcome, that's the whole point.

CleanMyMac has been GUI-only for 15 years. Then we looked at our developer user base and kept hearing the same thing: opening a GUI mid-build breaks flow.

So we built a CLI around the same cleanup engine. Same scanning logic and safety checks, now scriptable and available directly from the terminal.

CleanMyMac CLI is a terminal-native tool built for developers who don't want to leave the shell to manage disk space. cleanmymac purge is probably the most useful command for anyone with a lot of projects.

Scans your project folders, groups build artifacts by project with size and age: node_modules, .next, .turbo, target, .build and etc.
By default, it scans common project locations:

    - `~/Projects`
    - `~/Code`
    - `~/dev`
    - `~/GitHub`
    - `~/Workspace`

Results are grouped by project so you can understand what each artifact belongs to before removing it:

          $ cleanmymac purge
          
          Scanning ~/Projects, ~/Code, ~/dev, ~/GitHub, ~/Workspace…
          
          Found 18.5 GB across 8 projects
          
            ☑ my-react-app      3.2 GB   node_modules
            ☑ rust-service      4.1 GB   target
            ☑ django-api        2.3 GB   .venv
            ☑ next-blog         1.9 GB   node_modules
            ☐ current-work      856 MB   node_modules   recent
          
          Artifacts newer than 7 days are shown but left unchecked.
          
          ↑↓ Navigate  ·  Enter Confirm  ·  Space Toggle  ·  A Select all
          Esc Back to menu  ·  Q Quit
          
          beta · cleanmymac.com · lovingly crafted by MacPaw

Artifacts older than 7 days are preselected, newer ones are shown but never checked. You decide what goes.

Public beta is out. Install via Homebrew: brew install --cask macpaw/taps/cleanmymac-cli

GitHub + docs: https://github.com/MacPaw/cleanmymac-cli

Use clean for leftovers created outside individual project folders: package-manager caches, Xcode files, developer-tool data, AI-tool artifacts, user logs, and Trash.

CleanMyMac CLI scans first and groups the results by category:

          $ cleanmymac clean
          
          ← Back to menu
          23.79 GB of items found
          
          Scan results
          Select items you'd like to remove
          
          ▸ ■ System Junk       631 KB  →
            ■ Dev Tools        23.43 GB →
            □ AI Junk          358.7 MB →
          
          40 items selected (23.43 GB)
          
          ↑↓←→ Navigate  ·  Enter Confirm  ·  Space Toggle  ·  A Select all
          Esc Back to menu  ·  Q Quit
          
          beta · cleanmymac.com · lovingly crafted by MacPaw

Press → to open a category and inspect its contents. Use Space to select or deselect individual items. Nothing is removed until you review the selection and confirm the cleanup.

After cleanup, CleanMyMac CLI shows exactly what was removed and how much space was recovered:

          Cleanup complete!
          
          Dev Tools
              ✓ Homebrew       6.61 GB
              ✓ npm            5.03 GB
              ✓ Yarn           3.3 GB
              ✓ pnpm           4.72 GB
              ✓ pip            3.77 GB
          
          AI Junk
              ✓ Claude       358.7 MB
          
          
          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
          
                ____________
               /  23.79 GB  \
              /   cleaned!   \
             └────────────────┘
                    ▒▒▒▒
                    ────
          
          45 items removed
          
          Run cleanmymac ignore add <path> to protect a path
          Run cleanmymac clean --force to clean without confirmation
          
          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
          
          Esc Back to menu  ·  Q Quit
          beta · cleanmymac.com · lovingly crafted by MacPaw

Run all cleanup categories together:

          cleanmymac clean

Or scan only one category:

          cleanmymac clean junk
          cleanmymac clean dev
          cleanmymac clean trash

>

I work on CleanMyMac at MacPaw and basically live in the terminal.

Opening a GUI just to free up disk space or nuke old node_modules always broke my flow. So we wrapped the cleanup engine into a CLI, and today we launched the public beta on GitHub: https://github.com/MacPaw/cleanmymac-cli.

A few commands cover the jobs I was doing manually every week:

• cleanmymac clean — removes caches and logs across 18 dev tools: Docker, Homebrew, npm, Yarn, pip, Cargo, Xcode, JetBrains, VS Code, and more
• cleanmymac purge — scans your project folders, groups build artifacts by project with size and age, you decide what goes. node_modules, .next, target, .build, venv, __pycache__, Pods, and more
• cleanmymac analyze — interactive disk explorer. Navigate, see sizes, delete from within the terminal
• cleanmymac optimize — frees RAM and purgeable space instantly

This is an early public beta. Rough in places. Not feature-complete. I'm putting it out now because the world has enough to-do apps and not enough disk space.

What makes it different from running the commands yourself? It reuses CleanMyMac's scanning engine. The same logic that's been protecting Mac systems for 10+ years. Artifacts newer than 7 days are shown but never preselected. System paths are locked. Deletion always requires confirmation unless you pass --force. You can also whitelist any path: cleanmymac ignore add <path>.

To install:

brew install --cask macpaw/taps/cleanmymac-cli

Bug reports, questions, recommendations, and overall feedback are very welcome. That's the whole point of putting this out now.

Hey everyone! Hlib here. I work on CleanMyMac at MacPaw, and I basically live in the terminal.

We've had a lot of developers in our user base who told us, in various ways, that opening a GUI breaks their workflow. We took that seriously and built a CLI that wraps our cleanup engine into a terminal-first tool for dev-specific jobs.

It's a public beta, functional but not complete. The commands that work today:

• cleanmymac clean — system junk, dev tool caches, trash
• cleanmymac purge — project artifact scanner (node_modules, Docker, .build, venv, etc.)
• cleanmymac analyze — disk usage explorer
• cleanmymac optimize — RAM and purgeable space

Full commands list on Readme: https://github.com/MacPaw/cleanmymac-cli

This is an early public beta. Rough in places. Not feature-complete. I'm putting it out now because the world has enough to-do apps and not enough disk space.

What makes it different from running the commands yourself? It reuses CleanMyMac's scanning engine. The same logic that's been protecting Mac systems for 10+ years. Artifacts newer than 7 days are shown but never preselected. System paths are locked. Deletion always requires confirmation unless you pass --force. You can also whitelist any path: cleanmymac ignore add <path>.

To install:

brew install --cask macpaw/taps/cleanmymac-cli

This subreddit will be the main home for updates, changelogs, and feedback. If you run into anything weird or have a request, post it here.