macOS Utility

A native SwiftUI app that scans your Mac and every mounted volume for removable files — caches, logs, trash, developer junk, temporary files — grouped per drive. Review what's found, back it up, or delete it.

Features

• Scan all volumes in parallel; results grouped by drive → User Files / System Files → category → item, each with size, path, and a safety badge. Check the categories you want and act on the selection.

• node_modules folders are searched per drive and grouped by the folder that contains the projects, so each location is its own category.

• Back up to ~/Desktop/macOS Utility Backup <timestamp>/, keeping each item's original path so you can see where it came from.

• Delete via Move to Trash or permanent delete. Protected items are handled the right way — root-owned with your admin password, simulator runtimes via simctl.

• Console with live output, a working Cancel, and a watchdog for long operations.

• Rekey — remap keyboard keys (e.g. F-keys to brightness, volume, mute, playback) via macOS's native hidutil. The remap lives in the kernel's HID layer, so nothing needs to keep running; optionally install a startup daemon so mappings apply at every boot, even at the login screen.

• Dock Folders — clicking a checked folder in the Dock opens a browsable list instead of the macOS stack, so items inside can be right-clicked. Runs from a small background helper.

Build & run

make dev            # build & run for development (no .app bundle — Folders needs `make r`)
make build          # release build -> build/macOS Utility.app
make r              # rebuild, restart the app and the helper
make test           # run the test suite
make tcc            # reset Accessibility grants for the app and helper

Grant Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security) to scan and clean protected system locations. Without it, those locations are skipped.

Dock Folders additionally needs Accessibility access — granted to the helper (macOS Utility Helper), not the app.

Signing

make build works anywhere with no setup: if a code-signing certificate named macOS Utility Dev is in your keychain it signs with that, otherwise it falls back to ad-hoc signing and says so.

The distinction only matters for permissions. macOS ties an Accessibility or Full Disk Access grant to the binary's designated requirement. Ad-hoc signing makes that requirement the binary's own hash, so every rebuild produces a new hash and silently invalidates the grant — the System Settings toggle stays on while matching nothing. Signing with a certificate makes the requirement the bundle ID plus the certificate, which is stable across rebuilds.

So ad-hoc is fine for a one-off build, and worth avoiding if you are iterating on the Dock Folders feature, which needs Accessibility.

To create the certificate: Keychain Access → Certificate Assistant → Create a Certificate → name it macOS Utility Dev, identity type Self Signed Root, certificate type Code Signing.

make build                                 # auto: certificate if present, else ad-hoc
make build SIGN_ID=-                       # force ad-hoc
make build SIGN_ID="Developer ID Application: …"