Mole
🐹 Clean, uninstall, analyze, optimize, and monitor your Mac from the terminal.
💡 The CLI is free and open source. Prefer a native Mac app? Mole for Mac adds visual cleanup review, app updates, uninstall, maintenance, disk maps, live status, and a menu bar HUD. One license covers 2 Macs, with lifetime updates and a 14-day refund.
Features
- All-in-one toolkit: Combines CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus in a single binary
- Deep cleaning: Removes caches, logs, leftovers, and orphaned app data to reclaim gigabytes of space
- Smart uninstaller: Removes apps plus launch agents, preferences, and hidden remnants
- Disk insights: Visualizes usage, finds large files, rebuilds caches, and refreshes system services
- Live monitoring: Shows real-time CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and network stats
Quick Start
Install via Homebrew
brew install moleHomebrew follows Homebrew's supported macOS tiers. Use macOS 14 or later for the Homebrew path; older macOS versions should use the script installer below on a best-effort basis.
Or via script
# Optional args: -s latest for main branch code, -s 1.17.0 for specific version
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bashNote: Mole is built for macOS. An experimental Windows version is available in the windows branch for early adopters.
Run
mo # Interactive menu
mo clean # Deep cleanup + already-uninstalled app leftovers
mo uninstall # Remove installed apps + their leftovers
mo optimize # Refresh caches & services
mo analyze # Visual disk explorer (or 'mo analyse')
mo status # Live system health dashboard
mo purge # Clean project build artifacts
mo installer # Find and remove installer files
mo touchid # Configure Touch ID for sudo
mo completion # Set up shell tab completion
mo update # Update Mole
mo update --nightly # Update to latest unreleased main build, script install only
mo remove # Remove Mole from system
mo --help # Show help
mo --version # Show installed versionPreview safely
mo clean --dry-run
mo uninstall --dry-run
mo history
mo history --json
mo purge --dry-run
# Also works with: optimize, installer, remove, completion, touchid enable
mo clean --dry-run --debug # Preview + detailed logs
mo optimize --whitelist # Manage protected optimization rules
mo clean --whitelist # Manage protected caches
mo purge --paths # Configure project scan directories
mo analyze /Volumes # Analyze external drives only
mo analyze /private/tmp # Review user-owned temporary directoriesSelections made with mo clean --whitelist persist in ~/.config/mole/whitelist.
Security & Safety Design
Mole is a local system maintenance tool, and some commands can perform destructive local operations.
Mole uses safety-first defaults: path validation, protected-directory rules, conservative cleanup boundaries, and explicit confirmation for higher-risk actions. When risk or uncertainty is high, Mole skips, refuses, or requires stronger confirmation rather than broadening deletion scope.
mo analyze is safer for ad hoc cleanup because it moves files to Trash through Finder instead of deleting them directly.
Review SECURITY.md and SECURITY_AUDIT.md for reporting guidance, safety boundaries, and current limitations.
Tips
- Video tutorial: Watch the Mole tutorial video, thanks to PAPAYA 電腦教室.
- Safety and logs:
clean,uninstall,purge,installer, andremoveare destructive. Review with--dry-runfirst, and add--debugwhen needed. File operations are logged to~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.logand can be reviewed withmo history. Disable withMO_NO_OPLOG=1. Review SECURITY.md and SECURITY_AUDIT.md. - App leftovers: use
mo cleanwhen the app is already uninstalled, andmo uninstallwhen the app is still installed. - Navigation: Mole supports arrow keys and Vim bindings
h/j/k/l.
Features in Detail
Deep System Cleanup
$ mo clean
Scanning cache directories...
✓ User app cache 45.2GB
✓ Browser cache (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) 10.5GB
✓ Developer tools (Xcode, Node.js, npm) 23.3GB
✓ System logs and temp files 3.8GB
✓ App-specific cache (Spotify, Dropbox, Slack) 8.4GB
✓ Trash 12.3GB
====================================================================
Space freed: 95.5GB | Free space now: 223.5GB
====================================================================Note: In mo clean -> Developer tools, Mole removes unused CoreSimulator Volumes/Cryptex entries and skips IN_USE items.
Smart App Uninstaller
$ mo uninstall
Select Apps to Remove
═══════════════════════════
▶ ☑ Photoshop 2024 (4.2G) | Old
☐ IntelliJ IDEA (2.8G) | Recent
☐ Premiere Pro (3.4G) | Recent
Uninstalling: Photoshop 2024
✓ Removed application
✓ Cleaned 52 related files across 12 locations
- Application Support, Caches, Preferences
- Logs, WebKit storage, Cookies
- Extensions, Plugins, Launch daemons
Note: On macOS 15 and later, Local Network permission entries can outlive app removal. Mole warns when an uninstalled app declares Local Network usage, but it does not auto-reset `/Volumes/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension*.plist` because that reset is global and requires Recovery mode.
====================================================================
Space freed: 12.8GB
====================================================================System Optimization
$ mo optimize
System: 5/32 GB RAM | 333/460 GB Disk (72%) | Uptime 6d
✓ Rebuild system databases and clear caches
✓ Reset network services
✓ Refresh Finder and Dock
✓ Clean diagnostic and crash logs
✓ Remove swap files and restart dynamic pager
✓ Rebuild launch services and spotlight index
====================================================================
System optimization completed
====================================================================
Use `mo optimize --whitelist` to exclude specific optimizations. Path patterns work too, so you can keep a long-lived mounted disk image around (for example `/Volumes/mail`) without it showing up as a detach candidate.Disk Space Analyzer
Note: By default, Mole skips external drives under
/Volumesfor faster startup. To inspect them, runmo analyze /Volumesor a specific mount path.
Developer tools may leave large temporary directories under /private/tmp. Review user-owned entries with mo analyze /private/tmp; selected entries move to Trash only after confirmation. Mole does not automatically delete third-party temporary directories because build markers and age alone cannot prove that a checkout or worktree is disposable.
$ mo analyze
Analyze Disk (302.1GB free)
Select a location to explore:
▶ 1. ████████████████████████ 47.9% | Home 75.4GB
2. ███████████ 22.0% | User Library 34.6GB
3. ███████ 14.2% | Applications 22.4GB
4. █████ 10.7% | System Library 16.9GB
5. ███ 5.2% | Old Downloads (90d+) 8.2GB >3mo
↑↓→ | Enter | R Refresh | O Open | P Preview | F File | Esc/Q QuitLive System Status
Real-time dashboard with health score, hardware info, and performance metrics.
$ mo status
Mole Status Health ● 92 MacBook Pro · M4 Pro · 32GB · macOS 14.5
⚙ CPU ▦ Memory
Total ████████████░░░░░░░ 45.2% Used ███████████░░░░░░░ 58.4%
Load 0.82 / 1.05 / 1.23 (8 cores) Total 14.2 / 24.0 GB
Core 1 ███████████████░░░░ 78.3% Free ████████░░░░░░░░░░ 41.6%
Core 2 ████████████░░░░░░░ 62.1% Avail 9.8 GB
▤ Disk ⚡ Power
Used █████████████░░░░░░ 67.2% Level ██████████████████ 100%
Free 156.3 GB Status Charged
Read ▮▯▯▯▯ 2.1 MB/s Health Normal · 423 cycles
Write ▮▮▮▯▯ 18.3 MB/s Temp 58°C · 1200 RPM
⇅ Network ▶ Processes
Down ▁▁█▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▇▆▅▂ 0.54 MB/s Code ▮▮▮▮▯ 42.1%
Up ▄▄▄▃▃▃▄▆▆▇█▁▁▁▁▁ 0.02 MB/s Chrome ▮▮▮▯▯ 28.3%
Proxy HTTP · 192.168.1.100 Terminal ▮▯▯▯▯ 12.5%Health score is based on CPU, memory, disk, temperature, and I/O load, with color-coded ranges.
Shortcuts: In mo status, press k to toggle the cat, c to cycle how many CPU cores the card lists (2, 4, 8, all), and q to quit. Both preferences are saved.
When enabled, mo status shows a read-only alert banner for processes that stay above the configured CPU threshold for a sustained window. Use --proc-cpu-threshold, --proc-cpu-window, or --proc-cpu-alerts=false to tune or disable it.
Machine-Readable Output
Both mo analyze and mo status support a --json flag for scripting and automation.
mo status also auto-detects when its output is piped (not a terminal) and switches to JSON automatically.
# Disk analysis as JSON
$ mo analyze --json ~/Documents
{
"path": "/Users/you/Documents",
"overview": false,
"entries": [
{ "name": "Library", "path": "...", "size": 80939438080, "is_dir": true },
...
],
"large_files": [
{ "name": "backup.zip", "path": "...", "size": 8796093022 }
],
"total_size": 168393441280,
"total_files": 42187
}
# System status as JSON
$ mo status --json
{
"host": "MacBook-Pro",
"health_score": 92,
"cpu": { "usage": 45.2, "logical_cpu": 8, ... },
"memory": { "total": 25769803776, "used": 15049334784, "used_percent": 58.4 },
"disks": [ ... ],
"uptime": "3d 12h 45m",
...
}
# Auto-detected JSON when piped
$ mo status | jq '.health_score'
92Project Artifact Purge
Clean old build artifacts such as node_modules, target, .build, build, and dist to free up disk space.
mo purge
Select Categories to Clean - 18.5GB (8 selected)
➤ ● my-react-app 3.2GB | node_modules
● old-project 2.8GB | node_modules
● rust-app 4.1GB | target
● next-blog 1.9GB | node_modules
○ current-work 856MB | node_modules | Recent
● django-api 2.3GB | venv
● vue-dashboard 1.7GB | node_modules
● backend-service 2.5GB | node_modulesNote: We recommend installing
fdon macOS.brew install fd
Safety: This permanently deletes selected artifacts. Review carefully before confirming. Projects newer than 7 days are marked and unselected by default.
Custom Scan Paths
Run mo purge --paths to configure scan directories, or edit ~/.config/mole/purge_paths directly:
~/Documents/MyProjects
~/Work/ClientA
~/Work/ClientBWhen custom paths are configured, Mole scans only those directories. Otherwise, it uses defaults like ~/Projects, ~/GitHub, and ~/dev.
Installer Cleanup
Find and remove large installer files across Downloads, Desktop, Homebrew caches, iCloud, and Mail. Each file is labeled by source.
mo installer
Select Installers to Remove - 3.8GB (5 selected)
➤ ● Photoshop_2024.dmg 1.2GB | Downloads
● IntelliJ_IDEA.dmg 850.6MB | Downloads
● Illustrator_Setup.pkg 920.4MB | Downloads
● PyCharm_Pro.dmg 640.5MB | Homebrew
● Acrobat_Reader.dmg 220.4MB | Downloads
○ AppCode_Legacy.zip 410.6MB | DownloadsQuick Launchers
Launch Mole commands from Raycast or Alfred:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/Mole/main/scripts/setup-quick-launchers.sh | bashAdds 5 commands: Mole Clean, Mole Uninstall, Mole Optimize, Mole Analyze, Mole Status.
Raycast Setup
After running the script, complete these steps in Raycast:
- Open Raycast Settings (⌘ + ,)
- Go to Extensions → Script Commands
- Click "Add Script Directory" (or "+")
- Add path:
~/Library/Application Support/Raycast/script-commands - Search in Raycast for: "Reload Script Directories" and run it
- Done! Search for
Mole Cleanorclean,Mole Optimize, orMole Statusto use the commands
Note: The script creates the commands, but Raycast still requires a one-time manual script directory setup.
Terminal Detection
Mole auto-detects your terminal app. iTerm2 has known compatibility issues. We highly recommend Kaku. Other good options are Alacritty, kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, and Warp. To override, set MO_LAUNCHER_APP=<name>.
Community Love
Thanks to everyone who helped build Mole. Go follow them. ❤️
Real feedback from users who shared Mole on X.
Support
- Getting Mole for Mac is the most direct way to support Mole's development.
- If Mole helped you, give it a star, share it, or open an issue or PR.
- I have two cats, TangYuan and Coke. If you think Mole delights your life, you can feed them canned food 🥩.
These lovely people already did 🐱
License
Mole is open source under GPL-3.0, see LICENSE. A version you modify and share stays open under the same license, and if you fork Mole into your own product, to avoid confusion please give it a different name and credit Mole as the source. Mole for Mac is a separate, proprietary app, and Mole is here for the long run.
