Developer Guides

Comprehensive guides on understanding what fills your Mac's disk and how to reclaim space without breaking your development environment. For who builds CodeCleaner and how updates ship, see About and the Changelog.

Disk Space Overview

How Much Disk Space Can a macOS Developer Reclaim?

A comprehensive breakdown of how 50–150 GB of developer caches accumulate on macOS and how to reclaim that space with CodeCleaner.

disk-space

Xcode & Apple Development

How to Clean Xcode DerivedData, Simulators, and Archives on Mac

Learn what Xcode DerivedData is, where it lives, how to delete it manually or with CodeCleaner, and reclaim 25–60 GB of disk space on your Mac.

xcode

Node.js & JavaScript

Clearing npm, yarn, and pnpm Caches and node_modules on macOS

How to clear npm, yarn, and pnpm caches on Mac, find all node_modules folders, and reclaim 5–15 GB of JavaScript dependency disk space.

node

Docker & Containers

Docker and Colima Disk Cleanup for macOS Developers

How to reduce Docker and Colima disk usage on Mac, prune images and volumes, and reclaim 10–30 GB of container-related disk space.

docker

Rust & Cargo

Cleaning Rust Cargo Registry, Git Checkouts, and Rustup Toolchains

How to clean the Rust Cargo registry, git checkouts, and Rustup toolchains on macOS to reclaim 3–10 GB of disk space.

rust

Python

Removing Python pip Caches, Poetry Caches, Conda, and Virtualenvs on Mac

How to clean Python pip cache, Poetry cache, Conda environments, virtualenvs, pyenv, and pipx on macOS to reclaim 2–8 GB.

python

Gradle & Android

Cleaning Gradle, Android Build Cache, and Android Studio on Mac

How to clean Gradle caches, Android build cache, AVD images, and Android Studio logs on macOS to reclaim 5–12 GB of disk space.

gradle

Go, Ruby, Flutter & Maven

Cleaning Go Modules, Ruby Gems, Flutter Pub Cache, and Maven Repository

How to clean Go module cache, Ruby gems, Flutter pub cache, CocoaPods, and Maven local repository on macOS.

IDE Caches

Cleaning VS Code, Cursor, and JetBrains IDE Caches on macOS

How to clean VS Code, Cursor, and JetBrains IDE caches, extensions, workspace storage, and logs on macOS to reclaim 2–5 GB.

ide

General Tools

Cleaning Project Build Artifacts: node_modules, target, build, dist, .next

How to find and remove build artifact folders like node_modules, target, build, dist, .next, and venv across all your projects on macOS.

general

Finding Large Files and Duplicate Files on Your Developer Mac

How to find large forgotten files and duplicate files on macOS, and reclaim wasted disk space beyond caches and build artifacts.

general

How CodeCleaner Keeps Your Source Code and Data Safe

Learn about CodeCleaner's safety features: whitelist-based deletion, Docker CLI integration, source code protection, and local-only processing.

general