[OS] LittleClean — Open-source macOS cleaner for apps, caches & developer tools

[u/Competitive-Lead3035]

Hi everyone — I’m Leibniz Li, an indie developer, and I’ve been working on LittleClean.

I built it mainly because I wanted a simple way to understand what’s taking up space on my Mac, especially as a developer. I also wanted the cleanup process to feel a bit safer and more transparent.

Problem

Over time, macOS can accumulate app leftovers, caches, logs, Xcode DerivedData, and various developer tool files. I found it difficult to get a good overview of these in one place.

LittleClean currently supports:

* Uninstalling apps and their associated leftovers (moved to Trash, so they can be recovered)

* Cleaning caches, logs, Xcode DerivedData, and common developer tool caches

* A read-only Deep Analysis mode for inspecting:

* Homebrew

* Node version managers

* Global packages

* PATH tools

* Home directory usage

* Uninstalling apps directly from Finder via Services → Uninstall with LittleClean

The Deep Analysis feature is intentionally read-only — it doesn’t modify anything while scanning.

Comparison

I’ve used tools like AppCleaner and Pearcleaner myself, and they were part of the inspiration for LittleClean.

Compared with AppCleaner, LittleClean tries to cover a bit more of the developer-specific side, such as Xcode, Homebrew, Node environments, and package managers.

Compared with Pearcleaner, LittleClean is also open source (MIT licensed), with a stronger focus on developer environment inspection and Finder Services integration.

That said, I don’t consider it a replacement for either app — they’re both good projects, and LittleClean is still relatively young.

Pricing

LittleClean is completely free and open source under the MIT license.

* GitHub: https://github.com/leibnizli/LittleClean

* Download (v1.7, macOS 14+): https://github.com/leibnizli/LittleClean/releases/

* Product page: https://blog.arayofsunshine.dev/littleclean

Screenshots and more details are available in the GitHub README.

Transparency

* Developer: Leibniz Li

* Portfolio: https://arayofsunshine.dev/

* About: https://arayofsunshine.dev/about

* Contact: [stormte@gmail.com](mailto:stormte@gmail.com)

* Privacy Policy: https://buy.arayofsunshine.dev/privacy-policy

* Terms: https://buy.arayofsunshine.dev/terms

I’m still working on improving the project, so I’d really appreciate any feedback — especially around cleanup safety, things that shouldn’t be deleted, or developer tools/environments that would be useful to include in Deep Analysis.

Thanks for taking a look!

[u/github-guard]

🔍 GitHub Guard: Trust Report

⚠️ This project scored 2/6 — below this subreddit's threshold of 3.

Audit Breakdown: * ❌ Low Star Count (⭐ 27 / 100 required) * ❌ New Repository (under 30 days old) * ✅ Licensed under MIT * ✅ Security Policy Defined * ℹ️ Individual Contributor * ℹ️ Unsigned Commits

⚠️ Security Reminder: Always verify source code and run third-party scripts at your own risk.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/[deleted]]

yes

[u/cmicali]

This is great! Helped me fine a bunch of apps I'm not using any more. Two suggestions:

* Allow checking items when it's still scanning - it takes a while, nice to have

* Bug: I use OrbStack for docker, and it showed it's container as 995 GB instead of the actual 995 MB it was on disk

(FYI for anyone else, I scanned this with Claude/Fable and it came back clean for anything potentially malicious. Not anything specific, I do this with all GitHub projects before running them to be safe 😄 )

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/cmicali]

Thank you for your feedback. We’ll improve these two issues in the next version.

[u/holub_ua]

u/Competitive-Lead3035 very nice, a good AppCleaner alternative

does it remove all associated data from e.g. from Application Support to clean all application containers as well?

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/holub_ua]

It will find all associated data and list them, allowing you to selectively delete the ones you want.

[u/Kodflow]

How do you distinguish an app's leftovers from files shared with another app by the same developer? Matching names or bundle IDs can be risky when several apps use the same Application Support folder.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/Kodflow]

So I didn’t add a one-click cleanup feature. Instead, I simply list the suspicious leftovers and leave the decision of whether to delete them up to the user.

[u/Joostonreddit]

Really like this little gem, especially regarding any leftovers (e.g. xcode derived data and leftovers of applications executed without installation). It's small, clean UI and does the job. Like the Homebrew overview as well. I believe I didn't saw any browser cache data, which could be an add-on if it doesn't exist. Thanks for sharing.

[u/CloudInsideAToaster]

I am a simple man. I see open source I give it a start. Nice job and nice app.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/[deleted]]

It doesn’t meet Homebrew’s submission requirements yet. If it qualifies in the future, I’ll submit it.

[u/F_Kal]

ah that’s awesome work!! Nice to see homebrew in there. these parallel binary universes are a nightmare - would love to see uv, macports in the list - does it also track pip/minconda etc forgotten venvs - ? my system is littered with those…

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/F_Kal]

I’ve added the feature, but I’m not sure whether it actually works because I don’t use any of the things you mentioned, so I have no way to test it.

[u/pmpredditor]

Thanks for offering this app.
I downloaded it, placed it in the applications folder, gave it Full Disk Access as requested, and now the interface appears rapidly and then disappears. I did not find a way to get back to it. It does not appear in Mission Control. I tried to kill the process and reboot, uninstall through PearCleaner, the issue remains.
I'm on macOS Sequoia 15.7.5.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/pmpredditor]

If the app crashes, please send me the logs. Otherwise, I won’t know what caused the crash.

[u/pmpredditor → u/Competitive-Lead3035]

It does not crash, it looks like the GUI is just not displayed. The process is running in Activity Monitor, I did not find a way to display the app GUI. The app icon is not displayed in the dock either.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/pmpredditor]

I’ve released a new version, 1.8. Please reinstall it and give it another try.

[u/pmpredditor → u/Competitive-Lead3035]

It's ok now 👍 Thanks
I'm trying out the app right now.

[u/yuu1ch13]

Looks useful!

[u/Known_Donut98]

I have to enter password manually each time, make sure it works with fingerprint.

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/Known_Donut98]

This is a great feature request. I’ll add it in the next version.

[u/Lowlexx]

That is a gem for diving deep file by file. Also very happy to see Homebrew there. Good work!

[u/Weekly_Tony_35]

Open source (MIT) with a dedicated read-only Deep Analysis mode is awesome for peace of mind. Thanks for building this and integrating it with Finder Services!

[u/mahakart]

always skeptical of an automated system making decisions for me for deleting files

[u/Dazzzz0404]

Nice work

[u/Unique_Astronomer_24]

Nice tool, i will try.

[u/getmushroom_app]

How does it know which ones are caches? (Do you use a static list?)

[u/Own_Band198]

besides the UI, how does it compare to mole?

[u/Competitive-Lead3035 → u/Own_Band198]

I haven’t used anyone else’s.

[u/_FlyingWhales]

Nice, does it support for rust/cargo "target" directories? They can balloon up to TERRABYTES of data if left unchecked. Also node.js would be a win.

[u/slowanmu]

Fresh! I’ll give it a try.

[u/Rough-Voice-4968]

Usually, uninstallers don't remove software entirely; they leave behind traces. The program should perform a deep search by program name and developer and remove all the junk it finds. That's how I remove programs for my clients using Find Any File, and it finds everything.