DevSweep

See how much space developer caches take up on your Mac, and clean what you choose. A SwiftUI app and a command line tool, devsweep, for macOS 26 on Apple silicon.

What it does

• Shows where the space went: Xcode's DerivedData, old Device Support, SwiftPM, Homebrew, npm, Gradle and more, as a ring or as blocks.
• Cleans what you mark, to the Trash by default, with Put Back.
• Cleans part of an item: tick single DerivedData projects or build folders, and keep the rest.
• Points at the rest: installed Xcodes, simulator runtimes, Android Studio's SDK and emulators, and git worktrees, with what looks unused flagged.
• Keeps an eye out: a menu bar item with the free space, a daily scan, and a notification when DerivedData has grown a lot.
• Works from the terminal too: devsweep reports the same items and cleans them with --run.

Safety first

DevSweep deletes only caches that tools rebuild or download again, and it is built to err on the side of keeping things.

• Report by default. devsweep on its own only reports. It deletes only with --run, after asking; without a terminal to ask in, it needs --yes. The app only cleans when you press Clean.
• Trash by default. The app moves what it cleans to the Trash, with Put Back on each item. Deleting for good is a setting, and asks first.
• Inside your home folder only. A folder is acted on only if it is a directory, is not itself a symlink, and resolves strictly inside your home folder. Each one is checked again right before it goes; one that changed since the scan is skipped with a warning.
• Never what git tracks. Build folders are removed only when git provably tracks nothing in them. Any doubt keeps the folder.
• Not while Xcode runs. Cleaning the Xcode items waits until Xcode and Simulator have quit; DevSweep asks to quit them for you.
• Worktrees only with nothing to lose. DevSweep removes a git worktree only when you ask, with git's own git worktree remove, and only when it has no uncommitted changes and a branch holds every commit in it. The branch stays.
• Never touched: Xcode Archives (their dSYMs symbolicate crash reports), simulators that still work, simulator runtimes, installed Xcodes, Android Studio and its SDK and emulators, build folders tracked in git, and anything outside your home folder. Runtimes, Xcodes and Android Studio's files are listed with their sizes, and how to remove them yourself.
• It never runs as root.

If DevSweep ever deletes, or would delete, something it shouldn't, please report it privately, as SECURITY.md describes.

What it cleans

Item	What	Where
derived-data	Xcode's build products, indexes and shared caches	~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData, or Xcode's custom location inside home
simulators	Simulators whose runtime is gone	removed by xcrun simctl delete unavailable
device-installs	Cached app installs for physical devices	the CoreDevice cache in ~/Library/Containers
device-support	Device debug symbols, except the newest per device model	~/Library/Developer/Xcode/<OS> DeviceSupport
swiftpm-cache	SwiftPM's shared package clones	~/Library/Caches/org.swift.swiftpm
swiftpm-builds	.build folders next to a Package.swift	your project folders
xcode-builds	build folders holding Xcode output	your project folders
gradle-builds	build folders next to a Gradle build file	your project folders
npm-cache	npm's download cache	~/.npm/_cacache, ~/.npm/_npx
homebrew	Old versions and downloads	removed by brew cleanup
tool-caches	CocoaPods, Carthage, Sourcery, Playwright and JetBrains Toolbox downloads; Playwright MCP's browser profiles stay	~/Library/Caches

Project folders default to ~/Developer, ~/Development, ~/dev, ~/Documents/Workspace and ~/Projects; Settings changes them.

Install

DevSweep needs macOS 26 on a Mac with Apple silicon.

Download it from the releases page: DevSweep-<version>.zip holds the app, devsweep-<version>-macos.zip the command line tool.

Both are signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so they open like anything else you download. Move DevSweep to Applications, and devsweep to a folder on your PATH, like ~/.local/bin.

From source

git clone https://github.com/JaviLorbada/devsweep.git && cd devsweep
make app                       # builds build/DevSweep Dev.app
Scripts/install-cli.sh         # links devsweep into ~/.local/bin

Using the app

• Scan and clean. DevSweep scans when it opens. Mark items and press Clean, or click Clean on a single row.
• Keep part of an item. Select DerivedData and tick single projects, or a shared cache, in the inspector, then clean just those. Build folders work the same way. A project can go while Xcode is open, after a question.
• Look at what it won't clean. The sidebar's Also worth a look lists installed Xcodes, simulator runtimes, Android Studio's files and git worktrees, with their sizes, flagging what looks unused. A worktree can be removed from there when nothing in it would be lost.
• Find worktrees. DevSweep lists the worktrees of the repositories in your project folders, wherever the worktrees are. If a tool keeps its worktrees in a folder of its own, add that folder as a project folder.
• Settings has your project folders, items to skip, when something counts as unused, whether to clean to the Trash, scanning on opening, and the menu bar item.
• The menu bar item shows the free space and keeps DevSweep running after you close the window, so it can scan once a day. Nothing starts it at login.
• Report a problem or suggest an idea from the Help menu. It opens the issue form on GitHub, with the versions filled in, for you to finish and send.

Shortcut
⌘R	Scan again
⌘1, ⌘2	Show the ring, or the blocks
⌥⌘I	Show or hide the inspector

Using the command line

devsweep                          # report only
devsweep --run                    # clean the items in the report, after asking
devsweep --skip homebrew,npm-cache --projects ~/Code:~/Work
devsweep --help
devsweep --version                # the version and build, for a bug report

DEVSWEEP_PROJECT_DIRS and DEVSWEEP_APPLICATIONS_DIRS set the project and applications folders, and NO_COLOR turns colors off. The report also lists the git worktrees it found, with the command that removes each one with nothing to lose.

Privacy

DevSweep makes no network connections and collects nothing. It reads folders in your home folder, and runs a few developer tools to find and clean what they own: xcrun simctl, xcode-select, defaults (to read where Xcode keeps DerivedData), brew and git, and the command line tool also pgrep, to see whether Xcode runs. It keeps its last scan in ~/Library/Application Support/DevSweep and its settings in its preferences. Help > Report a Problem… and Suggest an Idea… only open GitHub's issue form in your browser. The link carries DevSweep's version, and for a problem the macOS version, so GitHub sees those when the page opens; no issue is created unless you submit the form.

Questions

macOS asks whether DevSweep may access data from other apps. That's the device install cache, which lives inside Apple's CoreDevice container. Allow it to measure and clean that cache, or skip "Device install cache" in Settings.

Why does it ask to quit Xcode? Xcode writes to DerivedData and its caches while it runs, so those wait until Xcode and Simulator have quit. DevSweep asks them to quit for you, and Xcode asks to save your work first.

Why does an installed Xcode show 3.7 GB when Finder says 9 GB? Xcode's files are stored compressed. DevSweep counts what removing them would free, the way du does.

Where does what I clean go? To the Trash, unless you turned that off in Settings, and Put Back returns it until you empty the Trash. Caches come back as you build, resolve packages or download again.

Uninstalling

1. Quit DevSweep, and move it to the Trash.
2. Remove what it keeps: ~/Library/Application Support/DevSweep, and its settings with defaults delete com.javilorbada.devsweep.
3. Remove the devsweep tool, or run Scripts/install-cli.sh --uninstall if you linked it from a checkout.

For developers

make build        # the kit, the tool and the app
make test         # Swift Testing, in parallel
make lint         # SwiftFormat and SwiftLint, strict
make app          # build/DevSweep Dev.app, beside the released app

• docs/development.md: requirements, the three test layers, checking the window from a script.
• docs/architecture.md: how the kit and the app are built.
• docs/parity.md: how the tool matches devclean, the bash script it started as.
• docs/releasing.md and docs/packaging.md: releases, signing, notarizing and the app bundle.
• docs/design.md: how the app uses color and motion.
• AGENTS.md: the rules for working on the code, and CONTRIBUTING.md: issues and pull requests.

How it's built

One Swift package: DevSweepKit scans, measures and cleans; the devsweep command line and the app sit on it. The app is MVVM on Observation: a view model per screen, four shared models underneath, plain values for the numbers and the words, and a coordinator that builds them. The models take each other through small protocols, so each one is tested with fakes in place of the others.

flowchart TB
  subgraph Views["Views · SwiftUI"]
    direction LR
    Screens["Overview · Xcodes · Runtimes<br/>Worktrees · Android"]
    Chrome["Sidebar · header · inspector<br/>menu bar · Settings"]
  end

  subgraph ViewModels["View models · one per screen"]
    direction LR
    WindowVM[WindowViewModel]
    OverviewVM[OverviewViewModel]
    XcodesVM[XcodesViewModel]
    RuntimesVM[RuntimesViewModel]
    WorktreesVM[WorktreesViewModel]
    AndroidVM[AndroidViewModel]
  end

  subgraph Models["Shared models · one source of truth"]
    direction LR
    Scan[ScanModel]
    Cleaning[CleaningModel]
    Marks[MarksModel]
    Apps[RunningAppsModel]
  end

  subgraph Kit["DevSweepKit"]
    Engine
    Rules["Scanners · PathPolicy<br/>SizeMeasurer · cleaning"]
    Deps["Dependencies<br/>live, or fake in tests"]
  end

  Coordinator["AppCoordinator<br/>builds the models, hands each<br/>the others, wires their events"]
  Values["Tally · StatusText · CleanPrompt<br/>numbers and words, as plain values"]
  Seams["App seams<br/>preferences · last scan · notifications<br/>quitting · opening links"]
  CLI["devsweep<br/>command line"]
  Mac[("macOS<br/>files · Trash · simctl · brew · git")]

  Views -->|"read state, call methods"| ViewModels
  Views -->|"read state, call methods"| Models
  ViewModels -->|"through protocols"| Models
  ViewModels -.-> Values
  Models -.-> Values
  Models -->|"async calls, scan events back"| Engine
  Models --> Seams
  Views -->|"the Help menu's links"| Seams
  CLI --> Engine
  Engine --> Rules
  Rules --> Deps
  Deps --> Mac
  Coordinator -.->|creates| ViewModels
  Coordinator -.->|creates| Models

Loading

Arrows point the way calls go; state comes back up through Observation. docs/architecture.md says what each type owns and follows a scan and a clean through them.

In the code, each kind of piece has a folder under Sources/DevSweepApp (App, Protocols, Models, ViewModels, Values, Views, and System and Debug for the app's own ways into macOS and development builds), and the tests use the same folders. To read it, start at App/AppCoordinator.swift, where everything is built and wired, then pick a screen's view model and its test, which builds it with fakes.

Support

To support DevSweep: GitHub Sponsors or Ko-fi.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.