HiveClean is a Windows app that finds and deletes junk files from your computer. it finds duplicate files, shows you space hogs, categorizes everything, and has a recycle bin so you can undo deletes. also scans your Telegram downloads separately.
the honest breakdown of what I learned:
React state is temporary —> when you close the app, your state vanishes. I had to learn fs and JSON to persist data to disk so the recycle bin survives app restarts.
IPC is the bridge —> Electron runs React in a sandbox. to access the file system or open folder pickers, I had to learn how main process and renderer talk through ipcMain/ipcRenderer.
don't duplicate code —> I wrote a getCategoryForTelegram function that did the exact same thing as getCategory and caught myself before shipping it. code duplication is like debt — small at first, crushing later.
one boolean = one view —>I almost made the code a mess trying to show/hide multiple views. learned that one showRecycleBin boolean controlling what renders is way cleaner than scattered conditional logic.
dialog.showOpenDialog is wild —> Electron talks directly to your OS. you can open real folder pickers, file browsers, alerts things web apps can never do.
the tech stack:
Electron + React + Vite + Tailwind + Node.js + Supabase (auth)
how to use it:
download HiveClean_Setup from the link
run the installer, click next, done
click "⚡ Scan Downloads" it reads your Downloads folder
click categories on the left to filter (Videos, PDFs, Images, etc)
click checkboxes next to files you want to delete
click the red delete button, confirm
files go to the recycle bin (safe, can undo)
want to scan Telegram downloads too you can click "Select Telegram Folder" then " Scan Telegram"
that's it. cleans up space without breaking anything.
Building from Source
Windows
Download the pre-built installer from Releases
Building from Source
Windows
Download the pre-built installer from Releases
Linux
Build the AppImage locally:
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/sambee-coding/HiveClean.git
cd HiveClean/hiveClean- Install dependencies:
npm install- Build for Linux:
npm run build:linuxThe built application will be in the release/ folder.
Note: Pre-built AppImage and macOS/Windows releases coming soon with GitHub Actions CI/CD automation.