👨‍💻 MacOSCleaner 2.3.0 is in development

[AlexTkDev]

MacOSCleaner 2.3.0 is in development. This cycle focuses on core cleanup safety, surgical uninstaller accuracy, macOS 27 compatibility, and honest disk scanning — aiming for a rock-solid core release without background bloat.

Nothing below is shipping yet. Scope can still change.

🛡️ Safer default cleanup & per-item delete
A cleaner should never delete what you didn’t ask for. In 2.3.0:

• Per-item deletion: Selecting a single file in a category will no longer trigger a wholesale wipe of the entire category. Deletion is strictly scoped to your selected leaf items.
• Safer defaults (review-only): High-risk items (local iOS backups, Mail downloads, Docker named volumes, Android SDK platform images, and simulator runtimes) will still be discovered and measured in the UI, but unchecked by default. Docker prune will run without wiping named volumes unless explicitly chosen.
• Explicit Trash handling: Clean separation between “Delete directly without Trash” (for items you want gone immediately) and “Empty Trash after cleanup” (opt-in toggle to empty ~/.Trash once the run finishes).

📦 Uninstaller precision & Intel-only detection

• No more false positives: Substring and prefix matching are replaced with strict word boundary checks (wordBoundaryMatch). Short app names (VLC, Arc, R, Go, Zed) will no longer accidentally claim unrelated system or developer files (e.g., "architecture"). Shared vendor directories (Docker, Unity) will not be flagged as residuals of a single tool.
• Clean shutdown order: Active apps are checked before uninstall (graceful quit → unregister launch agents/helpers → move to Trash).
• Intel (x86_64) badge: With Intel app support ending in macOS 28, the uninstaller will inspect Mach-O architectures and badge Intel-only apps so you can identify legacy software before system upgrades.

🍏 macOS 27 (Golden Gate) & permissions
macOS 27 introduces strict isolation: access to foreign-team app containers is denied by default, and legacy TCC database probes no longer work.

• Transparent permissions: The Full Disk Access (FDA) probe has been rewritten to test real protected paths rather than outdated TCC files. If an item cannot be read due to missing FDA or macOS 27 restrictions, it will be clearly labeled as "denied by macOS" rather than returning a deceptive 0 bytes / "all clean".
• Quarantined launch items: Launch agents marked with quarantine attributes (which macOS 27 refuses to load) are flagged as inert/orphaned.
• Native UX: Support for native macOS 27 Settings scenes, standard menu bars, and opaque content cards (Liquid Glass reserved strictly for window chrome, per Apple HIG).

⚡ Scan performance & completeness

• No lost scan batches: Fixed a bug where slow UI consumption dropped batches of detected junk during deep scans. Scanning is now both faster and more exhaustive.
• Single-pass home scan: Scanning for scattered junk and large files/IPSW is combined into a single traversal of $HOME with isolated per-folder error handling.
• Honest disk numbers: Hard links are deduplicated during scans, and space freed is verified with before/after disk measurements rather than estimated sizes.

🧠 On-device AI explanations (no cloud, no bloat)
AI in MacOSCleaner remains strictly on-device, private, and minimal:

• Powered by local macOS 27 Foundation Models to provide quick 1–2 sentence explanations of why a cache or residual exists.
• Structured verdicts (Safe to remove / Caution / Keep) based purely on local file evidence.
• No cloud calls, no background agent loops, and no private paths sent outside your machine.

🛠️ What 2.3.0 is aiming at
A clean, focused core release: zero background daemons (no menu bar extras), no accidental wipes of database volumes or Mail attachments, and full transparency on macOS 27.

Feedback, edge cases with leftover discovery, and false-positive reports are welcome while development is underway.