Scan and clean developer caches, build artifacts, and orphaned dependencies to reclaim disk space. No external tools required — works out of the box.

Is It Safe?

Yes. Dev Cache Cleaner is designed with safety as a priority:

• It never touches your code, documents, or personal files — only caches and build artifacts that developer tools regenerate automatically
• Every item is classified as Safe (green) or Review (orange) — you always know what you're cleaning
• Clean Safe Caches only removes items marked as Safe — things like npm/Yarn/Homebrew download caches that re-download automatically on next install
• Scan Caches lets you inspect everything before deciding what to clean — nothing is deleted without your action
• Build artifacts (like node_modules) are only flagged if older than 30 days (configurable), so active projects are never touched
• Items marked as "Review" (Xcode Archives, Docker volumes, app caches) always require explicit confirmation before deletion

What "Safe" means in practice: the worst that happens is a slightly slower first npm install or brew install next time — the tool simply re-downloads the cached files. No data is lost, no configuration changes, no system modifications.

Commands

• Scan Caches — Full scan with dashboard showing reclaimable space by category, inspect details, and clean selectively
• Clean Safe Caches — Scan and instantly clean all safe caches with one click (with confirmation dialog showing what will be cleaned)
• Cache Status — Menu bar showing total reclaimable space, refreshes daily

What It Scans

Package Manager Caches

Download caches that package managers re-create automatically on next install:

• npm (~/.npm)
• Yarn (~/Library/Caches/Yarn)
• pnpm (~/Library/pnpm/store)
• Homebrew (~/Library/Caches/Homebrew)
• CocoaPods (~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods)
• pip (~/Library/Caches/pip)
• Composer (~/Library/Caches/composer)

Build Artifacts & Dependencies

Scans your project directories for orphaned build artifacts older than 30 days (configurable):

• node_modules, .next, .nuxt, .turbo, .parcel-cache, .angular, .svelte-kit, .expo
• dist, build, target (Rust/Maven), vendor (PHP), Pods (CocoaPods)
• venv, .venv, __pycache__ (Python)
• DerivedData, .build (Xcode/Swift), coverage, .dart_tool, .gradle

Rebuilding is as simple as running npm install, cargo build, or your usual build command.

Xcode & iOS

• DerivedData — build indexes, rebuilt automatically by Xcode
• Archives — signed builds (marked as Review, requires confirmation)
• iOS Device Support — debug symbols, re-downloaded when device is connected
• iOS Simulators — unused runtimes (marked as Review, requires confirmation)

Containers

• Docker images, containers, volumes, and build cache (if Docker is installed)
• Volumes are marked as Review since they may contain database data

Language Caches

Cached dependencies that re-download on next build:

• Gradle (~/.gradle/caches)
• Maven (~/.m2/repository)
• Cargo/Rust (~/.cargo/registry)
• Go modules (~/go/pkg/mod)
• Ruby gems (~/.gem)

System Caches & Logs

• User log files (~/Library/Logs) — apps recreate these automatically
• Top application caches in ~/Library/Caches — marked as Review, skips Apple system caches

What It Never Touches

• Source code and git repositories
• Documents, photos, downloads, or any personal files
• System files (/System, /Library)
• Configuration files, .env files, secrets, or credentials
• Active project dependencies (only flags artifacts older than the configured minimum age)

Features

• Detail panel with path, size, clean command, and safety notes for each item
• Risk indicators: green = safe to clean, orange = review before cleaning
• Filter by risk level (Safe / All / Large > 1GB) or category
• Confirmation dialog before any destructive action
• Copy clean command to clipboard for manual execution
• Open path in Finder to inspect before cleaning
• Configurable project scan directories and minimum artifact age
• Menu bar badge with total reclaimable space

Preferences

• Project Directories — Comma-separated list of directories to scan for build artifacts (default: auto-detects ~/Projects, ~/GitHub, ~/Code, etc.)
• Minimum Age (days) — Only flag build artifacts older than this many days (default: 30)

Author

Developed by Undolog.

License

Distributed under the MIT License.