DevCleanerDevCleaner guides
Make room for your next build.
Practical guides to developer caches, clear cleanup commands and the files you should keep.
Start with: Xcode caches·Docker storage·AI tools
Recommended guides
A starting point for common developer storage problems.
Free Up Disk Space on a Mac: The Developer's Guide
Where every major toolchain hides its cache, Xcode, npm, Homebrew, Gradle, pip, Cargo, Docker, and the exact command to clean each one safely.
8 min read AI toolsHow Much Disk Space AI Coding Tools Use on macOS
Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Ollama, LM Studio, caches vs. model weights, what's safe, and the session files you must never touch.
6 min read XcodeHow to clear Xcode DerivedData (rm DerivedData)
Quit Xcode, then rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData. Regenerable build state, often 10 to 50 GB, not your source.
7 min read DockerDocker Taking 100GB? Clean It Safely on macOS
Docker.raw, build cache, dangling images, stopped containers and the volumes trap, prune commands ranked by risk.
7 min readStart with your problem
Browse by tool
Xcode3 guides ↗
Build caches, simulators and compiler storage.
Docker3 guides ↗
Images, volumes and the space inside Docker.raw.
AI tools & models6 guides ↗
Claude, Cursor, Codex and downloaded models.
JavaScript4 guides ↗
node_modules and npm, Yarn and pnpm caches.
Python1 guide ↗
pip, uv and Conda without losing environments.
Android1 guide ↗
Gradle caches, SDKs and emulator storage.
Overview & safety6 guides ↗
Where to start, cleaner comparisons and security.
All guides
24 guides
No guides found. Try a tool name such as Docker, Xcode or Python.
Xcode
How to clear Xcode DerivedData (rm DerivedData)
Quit Xcode, then rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData. Regenerable build state, often 10 to 50 GB, not your source.
7 min read Xcodexcrun simctl delete unavailable: remove old iOS simulators
Delete Xcode simulators whose runtime is gone with xcrun simctl delete unavailable. Runtime disk images stay: xcrun simctl runtime list, then xcrun simctl runtime delete.
6 min read XcodeXcode CompilationCache.noindex: Why Finder Shows More Than You Can Free
Compare apparent and allocated Xcode cache sizes, reproduce a sparse-file example and clean the specific cache you intend to rebuild.
5 min readDocker
Docker Taking 100GB? Clean It Safely on macOS
Docker.raw, build cache, dangling images, stopped containers and the volumes trap, prune commands ranked by risk.
7 min read DockerDocker.raw Still Huge After Prune? Check Allocated Space
Diagnose Docker.raw after cleanup by separating logical capacity, allocated host space and reclaimable Docker objects.
5 min read DockerColima Using Too Much Disk Space on Mac? How to Get It Back Safely
Colima stores containers, images and build cache in a VM disk. Measure it, prune in order of risk, then trim so your Mac gets the space back.
7 min readAI tools & models
How Much Disk Space AI Coding Tools Use on macOS
Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Ollama, LM Studio, caches vs. model weights, what's safe, and the session files you must never touch.
6 min read CursorHow to Clear Cursor Cache on Mac Without Losing Projects
The exact Cursor folders that are safe to clear, and the workspace state, local history and sign-in data to leave alone.
5 min read CodexClear Codex cache on Mac: ~/.codex vs /clear
/clear starts a fresh Codex chat. It does not delete ~/.codex, which holds config, sessions, logs, and caches on disk.
5 min read AI toolsollama rm: remove unused Ollama models
ollama rm removes unused models after you run ollama list. Do not delete blobs in ~/.ollama/models/blobs by hand. Shared layers can free less than the listed size.
5 min read ClaudeHow to clear Claude cache on Mac
Quit Claude Desktop, then move ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/Cache and ~/Library/Caches/com.anthropic.claudefordesktop to the Trash. Leave settings, credentials, and transcripts.
5 min read ML modelsHow to Clean Hugging Face and PyTorch Caches on Mac
Inspect downloaded models, preview a Hugging Face removal and distinguish regenerable PyTorch weights from your own checkpoints.
5 min readJavaScript
How to clear npm cache (npm cache clean --force)
npm cache clean --force, or the gentler npm cache verify. The cache is usually ~/.npm.
4 min read JavaScriptYarn Cache Clean: Clear the Yarn Cache on Mac and Linux
Run yarn cache clean to clear the Yarn cache. On Yarn 2 and later, add --all for the global cache. Confirm the folder on your machine before you delete it.
5 min read JavaScriptpnpm clear cache: pnpm store prune vs deleting the store
Reset the pnpm store by deleting the directory from pnpm store path. pnpm store prune only removes packages no project still uses.
4 min read JavaScriptCan I Delete node_modules? (And When To)
When it's safe to wipe node_modules, how to find stale folders across your Mac, and why caches are a separate cleanup.
5 min readPython
Android
Overview & safety
Fake DevCleaner Clone: How Hackers Copied My Site to Spread Malware
Attackers pixel-cloned the landing page as “CleanDev” to push PamStealer. Official site only, how to tell the real app from a fake.
4 min read The big pictureFree Up Disk Space on a Mac: The Developer's Guide
Where every major toolchain hides its cache, Xcode, npm, Homebrew, Gradle, pip, Cargo, Docker, and the exact command to clean each one safely.
8 min read ChecklistMac dev cleanup checklist
Quit Xcode, then clear DerivedData, old simulators, package caches, Docker, and project build folders on a Mac.
3 min read ComparisonBest Mac Cleaner for Developers: DevCleaner vs CleanMyMac vs DaisyDisk
DevCleaner vs CleanMyMac vs DaisyDisk vs OmniDiskSweeper, three different kinds of tool, and when each one is the right answer.
6 min read StorageWhy Is System Data So Large on Mac?
System Data is the remainder category. Available space includes purgeable caches and Time Machine snapshots you can list or thin with tmutil.
7 min read StorageNot Enough Space to Update macOS? What Developers Can Safely Clear
A macOS update needs more space than its download. Find what fills your disk, clear rebuildable developer caches first, then retry the update.
7 min read
