Sweep finds the gigabytes that development leaves behind: node_modules, Xcode DerivedData, Cargo targets, Gradle and package caches, old simulators, AI tool leftovers. It tells you how safe each one is to remove, and removes only what you confirm.
A flutter run failed with “not enough space”. The iPhone had plenty. The Mac had 1 GB left, buried under years of build caches nobody remembered making.
Sweep was built after that day, to find those leftovers in one scan and clean them without ever risking source code.
Pick your projects folder. Sweep checks the global caches in your home folder too, recognises each project by its files (package.json, Cargo.toml, pubspec.yaml…) and measures what can go, counting only the space that would really be freed.
Results are grouped by tool and labelled Safe, Review or Danger, with a note on what happens if you remove each one. Pick exactly what you want to clean.
Sweep moves items to the Trash or deletes them permanently, your choice. Where a tool has its own cleanup command, such as xcrun simctl, brew cleanup or docker prune, Sweep runs that instead.
Every rule Sweep ships with, and the safety level it gets. Paths that don’t exist on your Mac are skipped.
Nothing matches that search. Try a tool name like “npm” or a folder like “cache”.
A cleaner is only useful if you can trust it. These rules are enforced in the Rust engine, not just in the interface.
Comes back on its own the next time you build or run. Build output, compiler caches, logs.
Comes back, but costs a download or a long rebuild, or may hold something you care about. Gradle caches, simulators, virtual environments, model caches.
Hard or impossible to get back. Needs you to type a confirmation. Unity and Unreal project data, device backups, local AI chat history.
Any folder inside a project that contains files tracked by git is skipped, whatever its name.
Your home folder, Documents, Desktop, Downloads, /System, /Applications, /Library, /usr and the Homebrew root can never be removed.
The interface sends item IDs, never paths. The engine re-checks each path against the scan before touching it.
A link is removed as a link. Sweep never follows it to delete what it points to.
Simulators, Homebrew, Docker, Go, pnpm and Flutter are cleaned with their own commands, run directly with fixed arguments and never through a shell.
Xcode caches aren’t touched while Xcode is open, Gradle caches while Android Studio runs, and so on.
Removed items go to the Trash so you can restore them. Items over 5 GB, and anything cleaned by its own tool, are removed directly. Switch to permanent deletion in Settings if you prefer.
Hardlinks and APFS clones aren’t counted twice, so the number you see is the space you actually get back.
Sweep never cleans in the background. Every removal starts with your confirmation.
Get the .dmg from the latest release. One universal build runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
Open the .dmg and drag Sweep into the Applications folder.
Sweep is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app. No terminal commands needed.
Some caches sit in folders macOS protects. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access and turn on Sweep. Sweep shows a shortcut to this screen when access is missing; without it, those folders are simply skipped.
It is designed not to. Project rules only target known build and cache folders, any folder containing git-tracked files is skipped, and personal and system folders are on a fixed blocklist. Rules that once matched folder names commonly used for real code (like Go’s pkg) were removed.
Safe items come back on their own: the next build recreates node_modules, DerivedData or target. Review items come back too but may need a download, like Gradle dependencies or a simulator runtime. Each item in the app says what to expect.
A script deletes what its pattern matches, including the folder you didn’t expect. Sweep shows every item with its real size and safety level first, checks for git-tracked files, waits for related apps to close, and uses each tool’s own cleanup command where one exists.
No, but without it Sweep can’t see folders macOS protects, so some caches won’t appear. You can grant it any time in System Settings.
No. Scanning and cleaning happen entirely on your Mac, and your file list and results never leave it. Sweep contacts GitHub only to check for a new version.
Sweep is a native app built with Tauri 2 and runs on recent macOS versions on both Apple silicon and Intel. If something doesn’t work on your setup, please open an issue.
Sweep is written in Rust (Tauri 2) with a React and TypeScript interface. It was built by Abdulrasool Al-Hilo, pair-programming with Google Gemini, Claude and DeepSeek.
