[opensourcedex]

Mole is a free, open source system cleanup & optimization project written in Shell and released under GPL-3.0. It has 67,621 GitHub stars, 2,377 forks and 6 open issues, and was last pushed 12 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #1 of 3 tracked projects in System Cleanup & Optimization, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 687 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

Mole — Mac cleaner, app manager, and system monitor in one

What is Mole?

What it is

Mole is an open-source macOS utility that combines system cleanup, application management, and live monitoring into a single native app and CLI tool. It runs on macOS 12+ for both Intel and Apple Silicon, offering a unified interface for reclaiming disk space, uninstalling apps thoroughly, visualizing storage, and tracking real-time system health. Built in Shell and licensed under GPL-3.0, it aggregates functionality found across several paid tools—CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus—into one binary.

The project solves the fragmentation and cost of macOS maintenance: users no longer need multiple apps to clean caches, remove app remnants, analyze disk usage, or monitor resources. Its CLI and GUI versions share the same engine, enabling consistent workflows from terminal automation to interactive use. Safety is prioritized via dry-run modes, path validation, and protection of system-owned locations.

Key capabilities

  • Deep cleaning of caches, logs, orphaned app data, and leftover files to reclaim gigabytes of space
  • Smart uninstaller that removes apps along with launch agents, preferences, and hidden remnants
  • Visual disk analyzer with large file identification and cache rebuilding
  • Real-time monitoring of CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and network usage
  • Dry-run previews for clean, uninstall, optimize, purge, installer, and other destructive operations
  • Whitelist management for protected caches and scan paths via --whitelist and --paths flags
  • Shell tab completion and Touch ID sudo configuration via mo completion and mo touchid

Who uses it and how

  • macOS power users and administrators use mo clean --dry-run and mo uninstall to audit cleanup before applying changes
  • Developers run mo purge to remove project build artifacts and mo optimize to refresh system services after package upgrades
  • System operators monitor live health via mo status in terminal sessions or use the native app for VoiceOver-accessible dashboards
  • Homebrew users deploy Mole across multiple Macs via brew install mole and mo update for centralized maintenance

Getting started

Install via brew install mole or the official script: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash. Run interactively with mo or target commands like mo clean, mo analyze, or mo status. The native app is available at https://mole.fit/.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Mole when seeking a free, open-source alternative to paid macOS utilities with CLI flexibility and native UI. It replaces fragmented tools but requires manual safety checks—no built-in scheduling or remote management. Self-hosters must trust its path validation and whitelist logic; no external dependencies like databases or SMTP are listed. Avoid if you need automated scheduled tasks, enterprise deployment tooling, or support for non-macOS platforms beyond its experimental Windows branch.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Mole

🐹 Clean, uninstall, analyze, optimize, and monitor your Mac. Free open-source CLI, plus a native Mac app.

Stars Version License Commits Twitter Telegram

💡 Prefer a native app? Mole for Mac brings cleanup, app management, maintenance, disk maps, and live status into one lightweight, VoiceOver-ready app. One license covers 2 Macs with lifetime updates and a 14-day refund. The CLI stays free and open source.

Features

  • All-in-one toolkit: Combines CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus in a single binary
  • Deep cleaning: Removes caches, logs, leftovers, and orphaned app data to reclaim gigabytes of space
  • Smart uninstaller: Removes apps plus launch agents, preferences, and hidden remnants
  • Disk insights: Visualizes usage, finds large files, rebuilds caches, and refreshes system services
  • Live monitoring: Shows real-time CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and network stats

Quick Start

Mole requires macOS 12 or newer and supports both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Install via Homebrew

brew install mole

If Homebrew no longer supports your macOS version, use the script below instead.

Or via script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash

Mole is built for macOS. An experimental Windows version lives in the windows branch.

Run

mo                           # Interactive menu
mo clean                     # Deep cleanup + already-uninstalled app leftovers
mo uninstall                 # Remove installed apps + their leftovers
mo optimize                  # Refresh caches & services
mo analyze                   # Visual disk explorer (or 'mo analyse')
mo status                    # Live system health dashboard
mo purge                     # Clean project build artifacts
mo installer                 # Find and remove installer files

mo touchid                   # Configure Touch ID for sudo
mo completion                # Set up shell tab completion
mo update                    # Update Mole
mo update --nightly          # Update to latest unreleased main build, script install only
mo remove                    # Remove Mole from system
mo --help                    # Show help
mo --version                 # Show installed version

Preview safely

mo clean --dry-run
mo uninstall --dry-run
mo optimize --dry-run
mo purge --dry-run
mo installer --dry-run
mo history
mo history --json

mo clean --dry-run --debug   # Preview + detailed logs
mo optimize --whitelist      # Manage protected optimization rules
mo clean --whitelist         # Manage protected caches
mo purge --paths             # Configure project scan directories
mo analyze /Volumes          # Analyze external drives only
mo analyze /private/tmp      # Review user-owned temporary directories

Selections made with mo clean --whitelist persist in ~/.config/mole/whitelist.

Other install options

To install a specific release, pass any tag from the releases page, with or without its leading V. To track the development branch instead, pass main:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash -s -- 1.51.0
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash -s -- main

main installs unreleased code from the default branch, so expect rough edges. latest still works as a legacy alias for main; despite the name it does not install the newest stable release.

The script normally installs to /usr/local/bin, which may ask for an administrator password. Install into a user-owned directory if you want future mo update runs to stay password-free:

mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --prefix "$HOME/.local/bin"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Add the same PATH export to ~/.zshrc or your shell profile for new terminals. Mole updates the installation you invoked, so it keeps using this directory. Commands that change system-owned files may still request administrator access.

Prefer a walkthrough? Watch the Mole tutorial video by PAPAYA 電腦教室.

Safety

Mole can remove files, so it validates paths, protects shared and system-owned locations, and asks for confirmation when an action needs it. When Mole cannot prove an item is safe to change, it skips or refuses it.

  • clean, uninstall, purge, installer, and remove can delete files. Review them with --dry-run first, and add --debug when needed.
  • mo analyze moves selected items to Trash after confirmation.
  • Cleanup activity is recorded in ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log; review it with mo history or disable it with MO_NO_OPLOG=1.
  • Protect caches with mo clean --whitelist, or maintenance items with mo optimize --whitelist.

Review SECURITY.md and SECURITY_AUDIT.md for reporting guidance, safety boundaries, and current limitations.

Features in Detail

The examples below are shortened. Available items, sizes, and skip reasons depend on your Mac.

Clean

mo clean reviews known-safe caches, logs, temporary files, developer artifacts, and leftovers from apps that are no longer installed. Use mo clean --dry-run to preview eligible paths, and mo clean --whitelist to protect caches you want to keep.

$ mo clean

Clean Your Mac

⚙ Apple Silicon | Free space: 219.0GB

➤ User essentials
  ✓ User app cache · 18 items, 2.4GB
  ✓ User app logs · 7 items, 12.8MB
  ✓ Trash · emptied, 9 items

➤ App caches
  ✓ App Store cache · 8 items, 248.5MB

➤ Browsers
  ✓ Safari cache · 24 items, 642.1MB
  ✓ Chrome cache · 31 items, 1.2GB

➤ Developer tools
  ✓ npm cache · cleaned
  ◎ pnpm cache · skipped (pnpm busy)
  ✓ Xcode runtime volumes · removed 2, 3 in use

======================================================================
Cleanup complete
Tracked cleanup: 4.5GB | Items cleaned: 97 | Categories: 4
Free space: 223.5GB (+4.5GB)
======================================================================

Uninstall

mo uninstall removes an installed app together with related files that Mole can tie back to that app. It keeps shared data when another installed copy still uses it. Use mo uninstall --dry-run to review the plan. If the app is already gone, use mo clean to look for leftovers.

$ mo uninstall

Select Apps to Remove  1/3 selected

➤ ● Photoshop 2024                4.20GB | 2mo ago
  ○ IntelliJ IDEA                 2.80GB | 3d ago
  ○ Premiere Pro                  3.40GB | 2w ago

Files to be removed:

✓ Photoshop 2024, 12.80GB
  ✓ /Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2024/Adobe Photoshop 2024.app
  ✓ ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2024
  ✓ ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Photoshop.plist

======================================================================
Uninstall complete
Removed 1 app, freed 12.80GB: Photoshop 2024
======================================================================

Optimize

mo optimize runs bounded maintenance for supported Finder, network, database, and macOS services. Tasks that are unnecessary, unsafe at the moment, or unavailable are skipped with a reason. Use mo optimize --dry-run to preview the pass and mo optimize --whitelist to exclude tasks or path patterns.

$ mo optimize

Optimize

⚙ System  18/32 GB RAM | 616/926 GB Disk | Uptime 6d

PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSIS
  ✓ No sustained high-CPU bottleneck detected

➤ DNS & Spotlight Check
  → DNS cache flushed
  → Spotlight index verified

➤ Finder Cache Refresh
  → QuickLook thumbnails refreshed
  → Icon services cache rebuilt

➤ Database Optimization
  ◎ Close these apps before database optimiza

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is Mole free to use?

Mole is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Mole do?

Mac cleaner, app manager, and system monitor in one

What is Mole written in?

Mole is primarily written in Shell. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/tw93/Mole, and it has 67,621 GitHub stars.