A native disk cleaner for developers. It names every folder in plain English, marks what's actually safe, and moves it to the Trash — where you can put it back until you empty it.
Three screens do the whole job. These are real captures, not mockups.
Smart Scan sweeps every category and returns a single reclaimable total, broken down into review cards. Tick the categories you trust, leave the rest, clean in one pass.
Developer · Packages · Browsers · Containers · AI Tools · Apps · System · Heavy
No folder is listed without a reason. “Downloaded bottles/formulae. Safe to clear; brew cleanup does the same.” You get the path, the size, the last-modified date, and the call.
nvm versions → check first — reinstalling Node takes a while.
Open any folder and keep going until you hit real files. Installed apps expose their caches, containers, preferences and logs; installed packages hand you the correct uninstall command for the clipboard.
pip uninstall torch · brew uninstall — copied, not run.
Every rule in the file carries one of these. The level decides what the interface will even offer you.
Regenerated automatically by the tool that made it.
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
Safe to remove, but you'll pay to rebuild or re-download it.
~/go/pkg/mod
VACS refuses to touch a live VM disk. It copies the official command instead.
docker system prune -a
Shown so the number adds up. No action exists for it.
system-critical paths
Normal cleanup moves items to the macOS Trash. Permanent deletion happens only when you
choose Delete Permanently or Empty Trash inside the Trash view — and no step
anywhere asks for sudo.
Against the open-source Mac cleaners developers actually use — including the two things VACS deliberately doesn't do.
| Feature | PureMac | Purge | ClearDisk | Cacheout | Sweep | Mintify | VACS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open auditable rules file | — | partial | — | — | — | — | rules.json |
| Known dev cache paths | ~40 | broad | 63 | 15 | partial | partial | 96 |
| Docker real size (sparse/APFS) | — | — | — | yes | — | — | yes |
| Copy CLI instead of deleting | — | partial | — | — | — | — | yes |
| DerivedData per-project breakdown | partial | — | yes | — | — | — | yes |
| Plain-English per-item notes | partial | yes | yes | partial | — | — | yes |
| Full app uninstaller | yes | — | — | — | — | yes | yes |
| Duplicate finder | — | — | — | — | — | yes | no |
| Large files finder | yes | yes | yes | — | yes | yes | no |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary | MIT | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | MIT |
Four steps, about a minute. macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple Silicon.
Open the DMG and drop it in. Then eject the image.
Builds are ad-hoc signed, not Apple-notarized — that needs the $99/year Developer Program. Right-click the app and choose Open, or run this once:
Terminal
xattr -cr /Applications/VACS.appSystem Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → enable VACS. macOS protects ~/Library, so without it the sizes read as zero. Then press Smart Scan on Overview.
Plain swiftc — Command Line Tools only, no Xcode project, no package manager.
Terminal
git clone https://github.com/prajwal2308/VACS.git
cd VACS
./scripts/build-app.sh --run→ VACS self-test: OK (96 rules loaded)
Read from the GitHub Releases API when the page loads. Nothing here is copied by hand.
Loading releases…
Not during normal cleanup — everything moves to the macOS Trash, and Put Back works until you empty it. Permanent deletion only happens if you explicitly pick Delete Permanently or Empty Trash in the Trash view.
Releases are ad-hoc signed, not notarized — notarization requires Apple's $99/year Developer Program. Right-click → Open once, or run xattr -cr /Applications/VACS.app.
macOS shields ~/Library and app container directories from ordinary processes. Without the grant, VACS can't measure the caches that are actually costing you space. It's one toggle, and the app still makes no network calls.
No analytics, no update pings, no crash reporting, no cloud. Zero outbound requests — the source is right there if you want to check.
Release builds target Apple Silicon. On Intel, build from source with ./scripts/build-app.sh.
Nothing. MIT licensed, and it will stay that way.