Mole - free, open-source Mac cleaner for the terminal

Mole's free GPL CLI (mo) cleans caches, uninstalls apps with their leftovers, analyses the disk and shows live system status. It replaced CleanMyMac for me on day 1.

Table of Contents
Mole
Clean, uninstall, optimise, analyse and monitor your Mac
https://mole.fit/

Mole is a Mac maintenance tool from the indie developer Tw93. It comes in 2 forms:

  • the Mole CLI, a terminal command called mo, free and open source under GPL-3.0
  • Mole for Mac, a separate native app with a GUI, $19 one-time

This note is about the CLI, the one I use. In 1 command it covers what I used to need several apps for: CleanMyMac for cleanup, AppCleaner for uninstalls, DaisyDisk for disk space and iStat Menus for live stats.

Mole logo, a dark mole on a cream circle, next to 4 terminal summaries of mo clean runs reporting 45 to 85 GB freed and up to 1.2 million files cleaned

Key facts
Maker Tw93, an indie developer, also behind the Kaku terminal
Licence GPL-3.0, free. The Mac app is a separate, commercial product
Language Shell and Go
Platforms macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. A Windows CLI ships from a separate branch
Started 23rd September 2025
Traction 70,200 GitHub stars and 2,488 forks on 13th October 2026
Latest V1.59.1, 10th October 2026, the 3rd release in 6 days
Install brew install mole

What it does

Run mo alone for an interactive menu, or call a command directly:

Command What it does
mo clean Removes caches, logs, temp files, developer caches and leftovers of old apps
mo uninstall Removes an app with its LaunchAgents, preferences and other related files
mo optimize Runs maintenance: rebuilds caches and databases, refreshes macOS services
mo analyze Disk explorer in the terminal, with Vim keys, filters and moves to the Trash
mo status Live dashboard: CPU, memory, disk, network, battery, thermals, health score
mo purge Deletes rebuildable project folders such as node_modules, build, dist
mo installer Finds old DMG, PKG, ISO and ZIP installers in Downloads, Desktop and caches
mo touchid Lets Touch ID approve sudo in the terminal
mo history Lists what Mole deleted, with paths and sizes

3 things set it apart from the usual cleaner:

  • --dry-run on every destructive command. You see the full list before anything goes. A dry run of mo clean also writes the candidate paths to ~/.config/mole/clean-list.txt.
  • --json output on analyze, status and history. Scripts and AI agents can read the results directly. Mole even publishes an agent skill for coding agents.
  • It skips what it can't prove is safe. mo optimize and mo clean report each skipped item with the reason, for example "pnpm busy".

Mole CLI, Mole for Mac or CleanMyMac

Mole CLI Mole for Mac CleanMyMac
Price Free $19 one-time, 2 Macs Subscription, about $40 a year
Licence GPL-3.0, open source Commercial Commercial
Interface Terminal GUI and menu bar GUI and menu bar
Preview first --dry-run Review screen Review screen
Scriptable Yes, JSON output No No
Malware scan No No Yes
Extras purge, installer Fan control, app updates, privacy check App updates, malware removal

CleanMyMac is from MacPaw, and Setapp includes it. Mole for Mac is the closer match to it: the same jobs behind a GUI. The CLI is the better fit if you live in the terminal.

Mole for Mac window on its Clean tab, a globe above the line 154.19 GB found, 136 items in 9 categories, and a Review results button

For business people

  • What it solves: a Mac fills up with caches, logs, old installers and leftovers from deleted apps. Mole finds and removes them, and shows what uses the disk and the CPU.
  • Cost: €0 for the CLI. It replaces a CleanMyMac subscription.
  • Who it's for: anyone at ease in the Terminal. For someone who isn't, the $19 Mole for Mac app does the same jobs with buttons.
  • Risks:
    • mo clean deletes permanently, not to the Trash. A dry run first is the safety net.
    • It's young: first release in September 2025, and it changes fast.
    • It isn't an antivirus. CleanMyMac's malware scan has no equivalent here.
    • Fake "Mole" sites exist. The only official sources are Homebrew, the GitHub repo and mole.fit.

For technical people

Install

brew install mole
mo --version

The script install puts mo in a folder you own, so mo update never asks for a password:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tw93/mole/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --prefix ~/.local/bin

A safe first run

mo clean --dry-run       # list what would go, write it to ~/.config/mole/clean-list.txt
mo clean --whitelist     # protect caches you want to keep, and the Trash
mo clean                 # the real run
mo history               # check what went

Files and settings

Path or variable Role
~/.config/mole/whitelist Caches that mo clean never touches
~/.config/mole/purge_paths Folders mo purge scans, 1 per line
~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log Log of every deletion. MO_NO_OPLOG=1 turns it off

Gotchas

  • Run it without sudo. Mole asks for admin rights only when a task needs them.
  • The Trash goes too. mo clean empties the Trash by default. Untick Trash in mo clean --whitelist to keep it.
  • mo purge and Python projects. It targets rebuildable folders, venv included. Folders touched in the last 7 days start unselected, and folders with Git-tracked files or deploy keys are protected.
  • mo uninstall keeps your data. Settings and plugins stay unless you press D in the preview. It lists shell and MCP config lines that point at the removed app, but doesn't edit them.
  • Agents: mo status --json and mo analyze --json are read-only and safe for an agent to call. Keep the destructive commands for yourself.
  • Launchers. A setup script adds Raycast commands and Alfred workflows for clean, uninstall, optimise, analyse and status, see Alfred

My take

13 Oct 2026 I started with the Mole CLI today, and I'm amazed. I switched from CleanMyMac on the spot.

CleanMyMac served me for years, latterly through Setapp, see Setapp: macOS app subsciption for that history. Mole does the cleaning I used it for, for free, in the terminal where I already work. Every command shows its list before it deletes, and keeps a log after.

The JSON output is the bonus I didn't expect. My agents can check disk space and system health with 1 read-only call, without a GUI app in the loop.

What I'll watch:

  • Permanent deletes. mo clean skips the Trash. Dry run first, every time.
  • The pace. 3 releases in 6 days. Good for fixes, but I'd rather a tool that deletes files didn't change under me every other day.
  • No malware scan. That was the 1 CleanMyMac feature with no Mole equivalent. I can live without it.

Further reading

tw93/Mole
The CLI source, README and releases
https://github.com/tw93/Mole
Mole docs
Commands, safety rules and the Mac app
https://mole.fit/docs
NicAI
Written by NicAI, Nic's AI assistant, for his personal knowledge base. Researched and drafted by the model, not hand-written by Nic. Verify anything you plan to act on.