MacOptimizer Pro

Safety notice: Releases v2.1.0–v3.0.0 contain known safety defects. Do not use them; use v3.1.0 or later, the first Developer ID-signed and notarized release.

An open-source, native macOS system health and cleanup utility written in Swift and SwiftUI.

Features • How deletion works • AI assistant • Command line • Installation • Contributing

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Overview

MacOptimizer Pro shows live system health (memory, swap, CPU, thermal state, disk, battery and network), finds caches and other junk, uninstalls apps with their leftovers, finds duplicate files, manages launch items and runs a few maintenance commands. It is a single SwiftPM package with no third-party dependencies, and it reads system state through Darwin/Mach (host_statistics64, sysctl, getifaddrs) and IOKit.

The app is not sandboxed, because it needs to read and clean files across your home folder. It is therefore distributed outside the Mac App Store.

Features

• Live telemetry: memory and memory pressure, swap, CPU load, thermal state, disk space, battery (charge, cycle count, health, temperature) and network throughput. Sampling slows down when the window is hidden (see docs/PERFORMANCE_REPORT.md).
• History: one telemetry sample per minute is stored in a local SQLite database, kept for 48 hours and charted for the last 1, 24 or 48 hours. A list of completed operations (the last 500) is kept in the app's preferences (UserDefaults).
• Junk cleaner: scans user caches, logs, browser caches, developer caches (Xcode DerivedData, Archives and device support, simulator caches, npm, Yarn, Cargo, Gradle, pip, CocoaPods, Homebrew, uv, Poetry), large files and app leftovers. You review a cleaning plan before anything is removed.
• App uninstaller: moves an app and the leftovers you select to the Trash. Leftovers are not selected by default. Apple system apps are refused.
• Duplicate finder: looks in Downloads, Documents, Pictures or Desktop and groups files by size, then by their first 64 KB, then by a full SHA-256 hash. Duplicates you select go to the Trash.
• Startup items: lists launch agents and daemons (in ~/Library and /Library), enables or disables them with launchctl, and can move user items to the Trash.
• App updates: checks the Sparkle appcasts of installed apps, brew outdated --cask and the VS Code update API. Homebrew casks are upgraded by running brew directly, never through a shell.
• Maintenance: flush the DNS cache, reset the QuickLook cache, rebuild LaunchServices, restart CoreAudio, reindex Spotlight and clear the clipboard. Each command reports its real exit status. Some of them need administrator rights and report a failure without them.
• Security overview: reads the state of System Integrity Protection (csrutil), Gatekeeper (spctl), the application firewall (socketfilterfw) and whether the app has Accessibility permission, and turns them into a 0–100 score. A state that cannot be read earns no points.
• Watchdog: while the app is running (also with its window closed), it checks for high memory use, processes that stay above a CPU threshold, thermal throttling, more than 2 GB of swap and less than 10 GB of free disk, and can send a notification. It only raises alerts and never terminates anything by itself. It stops when you quit the app.
• Process list: shows the top processes and can quit or force-quit user processes (force quit asks for confirmation). PID 0 and 1, the app itself and about 40 named system processes are always protected.
• Menu bar extra with live memory, CPU, thermal and free-disk figures.
• Command line mode for status and cleaning (see below).
• Languages: English and Turkish. The app follows the macOS system language. The command line is English only.

How deletion works

Every file removal goes through one pipeline:

1. Scan and plan. A scan produces a CleaningPlan. Each path is resolved (including symlinks) and classified by OperationRiskClassifier. Protected paths never enter the plan.
2. Preview. The plan (items, sizes and risk) is shown for review. Nothing is removed yet.
3. Confirmation. Removal needs an explicit confirmation. SafeOperationExecutor refuses an operation that requires confirmation when none was given.
4. Execution. SafeOperationExecutor re-checks each path right before acting and stops if it changed after validation. Items are moved to the Trash by default. The executor allows permanent removal only inside approved cache and log folders.

Emptying the Trash is a separate action. It deletes permanently and asks for its own confirmation. It removes Trash entries only, never the targets of symlinks inside the Trash.

Protected locations include system roots (/System, /Library, /usr, /private, …), your home folder itself, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, ~/Library/Keychains, ~/Library/Mail, ~/Library/Preferences, ~/.ssh, ~/.gnupg, ~/.aws and ~/.config. See SECURITY.md for details.

AI assistant

• Default: local rules. Built-in heuristics analyse the current metrics on your Mac, with no network access.
• Optional: NVIDIA NIM (cloud). Off by default. It needs your own API key, and the app shows a disclosure that you must accept before the first request. Running app names are sent only if you also turn on the separate "Include running app names" setting.
• The API key is stored in the macOS Keychain.
• Suggested actions (scan, clean, check updates, flush DNS, terminate a process) open the normal screen or ask for confirmation. Cleaning always goes through the plan preview.

PRIVACY.md lists exactly what is sent and every other network request the app makes.

Command line

The same binary runs headless when you pass it a command. Output is English only.

MacOptimizer status                  # CPU, memory, swap, thermal, disk and battery
MacOptimizer clean                   # scan and print the plan (dry run, the default)
MacOptimizer clean --dry-run         # same as above
MacOptimizer clean --execute --yes   # move the planned items to the Trash
MacOptimizer clean --execute --yes --include-trash   # also permanently empty the Trash
MacOptimizer version
MacOptimizer help

--execute without --yes is refused. The Trash is left alone unless you pass --include-trash.

Installation

Download a release

Signed and notarized DMGs start with v3.1.0. Earlier releases (v2.1.0–v3.0.0) were not notarized and contain known safety defects. Do not use them.

Build from source

You need macOS 14 or later and a Swift 6 toolchain (Xcode 16 or later; CI uses Xcode 16.4).

git clone https://github.com/Codifya/MacOptimizer.git
cd MacOptimizer

swift test               # run the test suite
./Scripts/build_app.sh   # build MacOptimizer.app (unsigned)

The test suite has 87 XCTest test methods. It is hermetic: tests use temporary directories, a fake home folder, injected command runners and a throwaway Keychain item, so running them does not change your Mac. CI runs the whole suite on every pull request.

Documentation

• ARCHITECTURE.md: how the code is organised
• SECURITY.md: safety model and how to report a vulnerability
• PRIVACY.md: what stays on your Mac and what is sent over the network
• CHANGELOG.md and ROADMAP.md
• BENCHMARKS.md and docs/PERFORMANCE_REPORT.md
• docs/LOCALIZATION.md: adding or changing translations

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MacOptimizer Pro is released under the Apache License 2.0. Maintained by Codifya.