v0.1.0 · Free & open source

A disk cleaner that
actually shows its work.

Every other cleaner asks you to trust it. MacSift shows you exactly what it found, groups it by the app it belongs to, moves it to the Trash (so you can always undo), and gets out of your way.

Download for macOS Or build from source
Nothing leaves your Mac Everything goes to the Trash 1.5 MB, no telemetry

Apple Silicon · macOS 26 (Tahoe). First launch: right-click → Open (ad-hoc signed, no Developer ID).

MacSift
The MacSift window showing cached files grouped by app, with an inspector panel
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Installs
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GitHub stars
11
Categories scanned
0
Network requests

Built so you never have to take its word for it.

Three decisions separate MacSift from every cleaner that asks for your trust up front.

01

Groups files by the app that owns them.

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/ might hold fifteen thousand tiny files. Other cleaners list them one by one. MacSift collapses the folder into a single Safari row — one decision, not fifteen thousand.

Grouping is rule-based per category: caches and logs by bundle id, iOS backups by device, large files stay individual.

02

Moves to the Trash. Never permanent.

Selected items go through FileManager.trashItem — the same thing as dragging them there yourself. You can restore anything until you empty the Trash.

Dry run is on by default. Deleting above 10 GB shows an extra warning. /System, /usr, /bin and /sbin are hard-blocked in the engine.

03

Doesn't hide anything from you.

Click any row to open the inspector: the five largest files, a representative path, Reveal in Finder, Quick Look, copy path. Advanced mode shows full paths inline with risk indicators.

Every cleaning run ends with an itemized report — deleted, failed, total freed. If something couldn't be deleted, you see why.

Eleven categories. No vague "junk".

Every file is classified into a specific category with a known location and a documented risk level. Nothing lands in "Other".

Category Location Risk
Caches ~/Library/Caches Safe
Logs ~/Library/Logs · /private/var/log Safe
Temporary files /tmp · NSTemporaryDirectory Safe
Xcode junk Developer/Xcode · CoreSimulator Safe
Dev caches npm · yarn · pip · cargo · brew Safe
Unused app data Orphaned Application Support Review
Mail attachments ~/Library/Mail Downloads Review
Time Machine snapshots tmutil local snapshots Review
Large files Anywhere in your home Caution
Old downloads ~/Downloads · older than 90d Caution
iOS device backups MobileSync/Backup Caution

Two ways to install.

Pick whichever you trust more — the pre-built zip from GitHub Releases, or clone and build the exact same binary yourself.

1

Download MacSift.zip (1.5 MB, Apple Silicon), then unzip it.

2

Drag MacSift.app into /Applications before opening it — Gatekeeper treats apps inside ~/Downloads more strictly.

3

Right-click → Open the first time. If you still see "Apple could not verify…", open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom and click Open Anyway next to MacSift, then relaunch.

Every launch after that is silent.

The app is ad-hoc signed (no paid Developer ID), which is why macOS asks. If you'd rather verify than trust a binary, build from source.

Questions you'd ask a friend who wrote this.

Will it delete anything important?

No. Everything goes to the Trash. Dry run is on by default. Destructive cleaning requires explicit confirmation. System paths and installed-app data are hard-blocked. I built this because I didn't trust other cleaners — which is why I wouldn't ask you to trust this one either. Read the cleaning engine source — it's 120 lines.

Why does Gatekeeper warn me on first launch?

The app ships ad-hoc signed, not notarized — I don't have a paid Apple Developer account to notarize with. The first launch flow is:

  1. Drag MacSift.app from the zip into /Applications before opening it.
  2. Right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open → confirm.
  3. If you still see "Apple could not verify…", open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom and click Open Anyway next to MacSift. Relaunch the app.

After that, every launch is silent. If you'd rather verify than trust a binary, building from source produces the exact same binary in a few seconds.

Does it phone home?

No. MacSift makes zero network connections. You can verify this: it doesn't link any networking frameworks and there's not a single URLSession in the source.

How much space will it actually free?

Depends on how long you've been using your Mac. On a typical developer machine you'll find 5–20 GB of app caches, old iOS backups and Xcode DerivedData. The first scan is always the most dramatic — after that, weekly runs reclaim a couple of GB at a time.

Why macOS 26 only?

The UI uses the Liquid Glass APIs that only exist on macOS Tahoe. Supporting older versions would mean forking the UI layer, which isn't planned.

See what's actually on your disk.

Free, open source, 1.5 MB. Nothing leaves your Mac, and everything it touches goes to the Trash first.

Download for macOS Read the source